Caroline Ducey Movies
Unconventional beauty Caroline Ducey was little known beyond her native France before her starring role in Catherine Breillat's ultra-explicit exploration of eroticism and femininity Romance (1999).Born Caroline Trousselard and raised in southern France, Ducey became an actress at age 11 with a series of local theater roles, then studied drama at the Marseilles Conservatory. While still in her teens, Ducey made her film debut in the award-winning Trop de Bonheur (1994). Though she moved to Paris to study literature at the university, Ducey continued to act, earning roles on French TV and in the films Famille Je Vous Hais (1997) and Innocent (1998). But when Breillat cast her in Romance over 200 other hopefuls, she revealed herself to be an actress of remarkable bravery as well as skill. As the masochistic Marie, Ducey overcame her initial fears about the script, and her discomfort about acting with Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, to give a performance praised for its honesty and daring, even by those critics less than taken with Breillat's stripped-down visual stylization and overwrought view of female sexuality. Touted as the most explicit non-porn film ever, Romance drew attention at several international film festivals, garnered a U.S. release, and became a box-office success in France, cementing Ducey's status as an actress on the rise. Ducey's next film, the period drama La Chambre Obscure (1999), once again dealt with the fallout of sexual rejection. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
A twentysomething bisexual takes many wrong turns down blind alleys in his search for affection and understanding in this drama from France. Antonin (Hubert Benhamdine) is a young man who is desperate for love and thinks he's found it with Alex (Franck Victor), a handsome and talented musician. However, Alex is also a heroin addict, and when he succumbs to an overdose, Antonin is crushed and begins drowning his sorrows in anonymous and often degrading sex. Antonin becomes a prostitute and frequently finds himself infatuated with his clients, but most treat him with contempt except for Baptiste (Hicham Nazzal), who shows some compassion for the troubled young man. Sadly, history repeats itself and Antonin once again falls for a dope addict, a beautiful but damaged woman named Juliette (Caroline Ducey). The first feature film from photographer Hormoz, J'Ai Rêvé Sous l'Eau (aka I Dreamt Under the Water) also stars Christine Boisson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hubert Benhamdine, Caroline Ducey, (more)
Catherine Breillat's adaptation of An Old Mistress stars Fu'ad Ait Aatou as Ryno de Marigny, and Asia Argento as Vellini, two lovers in 19th century Paris. The two have been passionately involved for nearly a decade, but de Marigny attempts to end their relationship now that he is engaged to Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida), a respectable young woman. As the bride-to-be's grandmother forces de Marigny to confront his past as a notorious womanizer, the film flashes back to reveal the intense decade the lovers shared. Although de Marigny appears to want to shut Vellini out forever, her passions may be far too much for him to deny. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aatou, (more)
- 2003
Directed by Salvatore Mereu, Ballo A Tre Passi (Three-Step Dance) takes place over the four seasons, emphasizing issues of tradition versus modern times and the resulting isolation and lack of proper communication. In the first season -- spring -- a group of young boys travels to the ocean for the first time, while summer follows Michele (Michele Carboni), a shepherd whose only non-work-related activity is frequenting a seaside restaurant, where he meets a French woman Caroline Ducey, who is intrigued by Michele's naïveté. Autumn centers around Francesca (Yael Abecassis), a nun who is leaving the security of convent life in order to attend her sisters wedding, while winter finds the elderly Giorgio (Giampaolo Loddo) at the same wedding, struck by the differences between town and country life. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yaël Abecassis, Caroline Ducey, (more)
- 2003
Roberto Faenza's historical drama The Soul Keeper is a biopic of Sabina Spielrein. The family of depressed 19-year-old Sabina (Emilia Fox) takes her for treatment from Carl Jung (Iain Glen), whose radical approach to mental health was much derided in 1904. The treatment is successful, but the two eventually engage in an affair that displeases Carl's wife (Jane Alexander). The cured Sabina moves to the Soviet Union. The film uses the framing device of a modern-day scholar investigating what happened to Sabina after her move. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iain Glen, Emilia Fox, (more)
- 2002
Directed by Alain Raoust, The Cage follows 25-year-old Anne (Caroline Ducey), who has spent the past seven years of her life in prison. The crime was killing a small boy who had inadvertently gotten in the line of fire during a service station hold-up gone wrong, and Anne has never been able to forgive herself. Since she was a minor when convicted, however, Anne is up for what she believes is an undeserved parole. Once out of prison, she cannot come to grips with her freedom, and sets off to find redemption with the father (Roger Souza) of the child she had accidentally murdered. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Ducey, Roger Souza, (more)
- 2001
The ways of love are often difficult to fathom, but the love of a woman for the man who kicked her boyfriend's butt over unpaid debts is a new avenue of romance explored in this French comedy-drama. Fred (Lou Doillon) is a woman in her early twenties who is dating Francois (Camille Clavel), a young man who has made the serious mistake of getting behind in his payments to his drug dealer, Alex (Guillaume Saurrel). One day, Alex decides things have gone too far, and he arrives at Francois and Fred's place to beat him up. For some reason, Fred enjoys watching Alex slap her boyfriend around, and she quickly finds herself infatuated with Alex. Seeing that Fred is already involved with Francois, she feels it might seem unseemly to approach him directly, so instead she fixes Alex up with her close friend Sylvia (Caroline Ducey), and the two couples spend the evening together as Fred puts her matchmaking skills to the test. Lou Doillon, who plays Fred, is the daughter of Carrement a L'ouest's director Jacques Doillon; her mother is noted singer and actress Jane Birkin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Doillon, Caroline Ducey, (more)
- 1999
Caroline Ducey, who previously gained fame by bearing it all in the 1999 dour erotic drama Romance, stars in this drama set in the 14th century. Alienor (Ducey) is provincial lass who puts her skill with herbal cures to use by healing the festering boil on the king's leg. He rewards her with offering her a husband of her choice. Unfortunately, the betrothed Court Bertrand de Roussillon (Melvil Poupaud) refuses to consummate the marriage. Not a woman to let such a setback keep her down, she resolves to use her healing powers to loose her hymen by any means necessary. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Berroyer, Mathieu Demy, (more)
- 1999
- NR
Like Nagisa Oshima's erotic masterpiece In the Realm of the Senses (1976), this film's shockingly graphic depiction of sex blurs the line between art and pornography. Marie (Caroline Ducey) is unfulfilled by her relationship with Paul (Sagamore Stévenin), her narcissistic male model boyfriend, who refuses to show her any kind of physical affection, much less make love to her. Frustrated, she decides to take matters into her own hands, and she finds one night of tenderness and passion in the arms of Paolo, a man she met in a bar, played by Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi. Later, she is seduced by an older man, Robert (François Berléand), who introduces her to bondage and sadomasochism. As she allows herself to be bound, gagged, and forced into bizarre contortions, her flirtation with the wild side pushes her into increasingly frightening and degrading situations. Yet, like Catherine Deneuve's Sévérine in Belle de jour (1967), after each tryst she returns to her emotionally remote boyfriend as if nothing happened. One night, taken by Marie's renewed vitality, Paul holds her and begins to make love to her. Although he selfishly withdraws halfway through and casts her aside, he manages to impregnate her; after he proposes, Marie begins to feel society's constraints on her newly liberated sexuality, and she eventually decides to take violent action to salvage it. Unlike most sexually explicit works, the film is expressed from the female perspective. Director Catherine Breillat places the viewer inside Marie's mind through the camera's point-of-view, which in one scene lingers lovingly on Siffredi's camera-friendly anatomy, and through Marie's voice-overs, which provide access to her private thoughts. Brought to life by Ducey's tour-de-force performance, Romance is a confrontational yet emotional work that is not easy to forget. The film premiered at the 1999 Rotterdam Film Festival and was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stévenin, (more)
