Jean-Philippe Toussaint Movies
Acclaimed Belgian novelist Jean-Philippe Toussaint drew attention to his directorial talents in 1990 with a remarkable satire on modern life, Monsieur. His third feature, La Patinoire, is about a film director who is shooting a highly symbolic film called 'Dolores' at an ice rink. He has hired a Lithuanian ice hockey team with which he is having enormous communication problems. His actors all have inflated egos, his film crew is made up of fools, and there is a politician on his back. But he must finish the film, no matter what, in time for the Venice Film Festival. A black comedy which is applicable to all absurd situations of life, but particularly those associated with the film industry, La Patinoire is a clever satire from beginning to end, including its title. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Novembre, Mireille Perrier, (more)
- 1989
Based on the philosophical novel by Jean-Philippe Toussaint (who also wrote the screenplay), this black and white drama follows "the man" (Tom Novembre) in his abstracted wanderings. At first, for no apparent reason, "the man" decides he is going to live only in the bathroom of his apartment (clothed). Perhaps he wants the isolation he might find there. His solitude destroyed by a bevy of friends, some housepainters hired by his girlfriend, and his family, our philosophical hero makes his way to a nondescript hotel room in Venice, where he spends his time playing darts in his room. When his girlfriend visits him there, he responds to this interruption of his musings by briefly using her forehead as a dartboard. Eventually he returns to his Paris apartment, and reconciles with his injured girlfriend. The actor Novembre has been compared with Buster Keaton, and for many reviewers, his deadpan performance lifts this odd movie out of the obscurity it might otherwise deserve. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Novembre, Gunilla Karlzen, (more)
- 1989
Monsieur (Dominique Gould) has been cheerfully living at the family residence of his girlfriend, whose parents inexplicably accept this arrangement. Nonetheless, when his girlfriend brings a new boyfriend home to live with her, he goes out and gets an apartment. The apartment house is managed by a strange bullying character, who has Monsieur do his typing for him on weekends, while an assortment of odd characters parade in and out of his apartment. Monsieur accepts all this passively, but with good grace, and by the end of the film it looks as though something good will come of it all. This odd, black and white film is the second feature by novelist-director Jean-Philippe Toussaint. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dominic Gould, Eva Ionesco, (more)
