Daniel Auteuil Movies
One of France's most respected actors, Daniel Auteuil has established himself as a performer at ease in any number of genres, ranging from period dramas to romantic comedies to crime thrillers. The son of opera singers, he was born in Algeria on January 24, 1950. He started his career in musical comedy and made his film debut in 1972. After starring in a number of forgettable comedies, Auteuil had his breakthrough playing the scheming farmer Ugolin in Jean de Florette (1986). He won a Best Actor César and a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for his portrayal, and that same year he earned further acclaim for his work in the film's equally popular sequel, Manon des Sources. Auteuil's involvement in Manon had the added benefit of introducing him to costar Emmanuelle Béart, with whom he would have a ten-year relationship that produced a daughter, born in 1992.The awards he earned for his portrayal of Ugolin established him as one of his country's most promising actors, and Auteuil subsequently became known for his work as one of the screen's most accomplished purveyors of emotional turmoil. His searching, conflicted portrayals found particularly effective expression in such films as Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), for which he won the European Film Academy's Best Actor award; Ma Saison Préférée (1993), in which he and Catherine Deneuve starred as siblings with an unnatural bond; La Séparation (1994), for which earned a César nomination for his portrayal of a husband undergoing a nervous breakdown; La Reine Margot (1994), in which he played the cuckolded Henri of Navarre; Le Huitième Jour, in which he played an emotionally stunted workaholic; and Les Voleurs (1996), a crime drama in which he and Deneuve were again cast as a brother and sister. In 1999, Auteuil made one of his few English language outings in Chris Menges' Lost Son, playing a detective living in self-exile in London who gets caught up in a pedophilia ring. That same year, he collaborated with celebrated director Patrice Leconte on La fille sur le pont, playing a knife-thrower who embarks on a journey across Europe with a suicidal young woman (Vanessa Paradis). ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
A bitter class war erupts between two families after the daughter of a humble well digger is impregnated by the son of a wealthy shopkeeper. Aging widower Pascal Amoretti (Daniel Auteuil) works hard to provide for his six daughters. As the first shots of World War I are fired, his eldest daughter Patricia (Astrid Bergés-Frisbey) returns home from Paris to help raise her younger siblings. Meanwhile, Pascal wants to see Patricia marry his longtime assistant Felipe (Kad Merad), a hard worker who would make a loving husband. But shortly after arriving back home, Patricia has a fling with Jacques Mazel (Nicolas Duvauchelle), a fighter pilot from a wealthy family, who then disappears to the front lines after getting Patricia pregnant. At first, the Mazels are furious, accusing the impoverished Amorettis of using the situation to stake a claim on their fortune. When Jacques goes missing in action, however, the Mazels quickly realize that Patricia's unborn child may be their only link to the son who sacrificed his life fighting for their country. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2009
An unabashed paean to the pleasures of an illicit, adulterous love affair, this melodrama stars Gallic screen legend Daniel Auteuil (Sostiene Pereira) as Pierre, an elderly Frenchman. At the outset of the tale, Pierre's son, Adrien (Antonin Chalon) leaves wife Chloe (Florence Loiret-Caille) and their two daughters following an ongoing affair with a mistress. In response, Pierre whisks Chloe and the girls away to a cabin for a few days of consolation, then sits down with his daughter-in-law and recounts a series of events from his past. The film flashes back in time to Pierre's middle-aged years, when as a businessman he attempted to close a deal with a cadre of Chinese executives but couldn't quite manage to do so, given his constant distraction by the gorgeous (and much younger) translator at the meeting, Mathilde (Marie-Josee Croze). Though married, Pierre fell instantly into love and lust, and consented to a series of encounters with Mathilde that witnessed the partners meeting up in hotels around the globe, over the years, whenever time and circumstance permitted a convenient liaison. Unsurprisingly, this only prompted rage and sorrow from Pierre's abandoned wife (Christiane Millet), but it instilled little if any regret in Pierre, who still perceives his relationship with Mathilde as the greatest love story he has ever personally known. The passion-imbued recollections ultimately force the indignant Chloe to step back from her familial situation and reconsider Adrien's actions from a different angle. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Marie-Josée Croze, (more)
- 2008
A cop on the edge of an emotional collapse is on the trail of a violent madman in this edgy crime thriller from French writer and director Olivier Marchal. Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon) is a habitual criminal who, after serving twenty-five years in prison on a sentence for rape and murder, is up for parole. While Charles insists he's seen the error of his ways and wants to repay society for his crimes, Justine (Olivia Bonamy) isn't buying it -- Charles murdered her mother and father while she watched, and she writes him a long letter explaining in detail why she wants him to stay behind bars. Charles is granted parole anyway, but it soon becomes clear that the clever criminal fooled the prison authorities -- he still has a taste for murder and wants to kill again, starting with Justine. Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) is a police detective who meets with Justine and helps protect her from the madman on the loose, but he's not the best man for the job these days -- shattered by the sudden death of his wife and child and haunted by a serious of brutal murders he's been investigating, Louis's psyche is in tatters and he's only marginally more stable than the criminal he's trying to catch. Director and screenwriter Olivier Marchal was inspired to make MR 73 by his own experiences as a police officer in the early '80s; the title is police slang for the Manurhin 73, a standard handgun for French beat cops in the '70s and '80s. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Olivia Bonamy, (more)
- 2008
Recalling both Gerard Lauzier's Mon Père Ce Héros (1991) and Stan Dragoti's She's Out of Control (1989), this French-language comedy hones in on the adolescent complications that threaten to destroy a long-estranged dad's newfound relationship with his teen daughter. For years, scientist Philippe Le Tallec (Daniel Auteuil) has lived in the U.S., thousands of miles distant from his daughter Eglantine (Juliette Lamboley). In time, circumstances dictate that Philippe must return to the States to assume guardianship of Eglantine. He anticipates forging a deep and meaningful paternal-filial relationship with her, but fails to anticipate her many preoccupations, including wild partying, boys, and tightly-knit bonds with her girlfriends - preoccupations that threaten to drive a wedge in-between father and daughter. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Lamboley, (more)
- 2007
Adapted from the same José Giovanni story that spawned Jean-Pierre Melville's classic 1966 film of the same name, director/screenwriter Alain Corneau's nail-biting thriller stars Daniel Auteuil as iconic French gangster Gustav "Gu" Minda and Monica Bellucci as the smoldering Manouche -- whose love for the notorious criminal knows no bounds. As the 1950s draw to a close, vicious convict Gu stages a daring escape from the prison where he had been serving a life sentence. Though Gu longs to flee from the country with his longtime lover Manouche, he must first complete one last job that will secure him the finances to do so; but with every policeman in the country currently searching for Gu, it isn't going to be easy. Gu has the fortitude and know-how of the most experienced criminal, and despite the fact that his staged hold-up goes down like clockwork, the police looking to capture him prove craftier than he ever anticipated. Inspector Blot (Michel Blanc) knows that Gu isn't likely to make any mistakes while procuring his funds for flight, so instead of trying to catch him in the act, he hatches an ingenious scheme to create dissent within the criminal ranks of his target. Blot's plan is to make Gu's gang think that their leader is now a police informer, and everyone buys the ruse except for Manouche. The steely-nerved Manouche knows Gu well enough to realize that he would never agree to work with the cops. Later, as things start to fall apart, Manouche prepares to pay the ultimate price to defend her beloved Gu and clear his name once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Monica Bellucci, (more)
- 2007
Two men find themselves sharing a lifetime of experiences and observations over the course of a summer in this low-key comedy-drama from France. After the death of his mother, an artist (Daniel Auteuil) well known for his nature studies inherits his family's vacation house in the country. The artist notices that the house's once-impressive vegetable garden has fallen into neglect, and he hires a local gardener to put it back into shape. To his great surprise, the gardener (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) turns out to be an old friend from his school days, and as the gardener gets to work, he and the artist talk about where their lives have gone since they last saw one another. Over the next several months, the gardener and the painter chat about life, love, work, family, vegetables and anything else that crosses their minds as they casually pass along their life's stories and what they learned along the way under the warmth of the summer sun. Dialogue Avec Mon Jardinier (aka Conversations With My Gardener) was adapted from the memoirs of artist Henri Cueco. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, (more)
French farce master Francis Veber (The Dinner Game) combines slapstick laughs with rapid-fire dialogue as he tells the tale of a Parisian valet unwittingly drawn into the affairs of a wealthy industrialist. François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh) is a simple valet employed by a posh Paris restaurant. Blissfully unaware of the paparazzi stalking powerful businessman Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) and his stunning mistress, Elena (Alice Taglioni), the innocent passerby François wanders haphazardly into the frame. Realizing that the common man in the photograph may be Levasseur's only hope of avoiding a nasty divorce from his wife, Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas), Pierre's quick-thinking lawyer (Richard Berry) arranges for François to live with Elena in order to mislead the tabloids. Having just been dumped by childhood sweetheart Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), François accepts the proposal, in the hopes he can win her back through jealousy. But Pierre's jealousy flares, Elena grows frustrated with her new digs, and Christine might know more than she's letting on. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, (more)
- 2006
A young firebrand learns the hard way about the practical problems behind political assassination in this lavish period comedy. In 1814, with his reputation in tatters and his rule of France come to an inglorious end, Napoleon Bonaparte (Daniel Auteuil) flees to the Island of Elba, where his arrival causes no small stir among the citizens. However, not everyone is pleased with his presence; Martino (Elio Germano) is a young and idealistic schoolteacher who believes Napoleon turned his back on the ideals he fought for in the French Revolution, and doesn't hesitate to criticize the former Emperor in front of his students. When Martino isn't busy with his students, he attends to the romantic needs of the beautiful Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci), but she's powerless to help him when his controversial opinions about Elba's new arrival cause him to be fired. When Martino learns that Napoleon is in need of a personal secretary and librarian, he has a brainstorm -- if he can get the job, he'll be close enough to the former emperor to win his trust and then kill the despot when no one suspects. Martino is awarded the prestigious position, but once he gets to know Napoleon, the great man's charm and wit make it difficult for Martino to put his deadly plans into motion. N (Napoleon and Me) (aka N (Io E Napoleone) received its North American premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Elio Germano, (more)
A businessman tries to belatedly learn the fine art of friendship in this comedy from French filmmaker Patrice Leconte. François (Daniel Auteuil) is an antique dealer who runs an upscale shop with his business partner, Catherine (Julie Gayet). François is a gently ruthless trader who will do nearly anything to make a deal, and when Catherine throws him a birthday party, someone points out that all the guests are business associates, not personal friends. While François protests that he does indeed have friends, Catherine calls him on it and makes him a deal -- if he can produce his best friend within ten days, he'll be allowed to keep a valuable vase he recently found for the shop, but if not, the vase will belong to her. François agrees to the challenge, but while going through his address book, he begins to realize he really doesn't have any especially close friends. Over the course of several days, François keeps running into Bruno (Dany Boon), a gregarious and friendly taxi driver, and while Bruno's personality rubs François the wrong way, he notices that the cabbie has a way of making (most) people like him. Eager to win his bet with Catherine, François recruits Bruno to give him a crash course in making friends and influencing people, hoping to find a buddy before his deadline. Mon Meilleur Ami (aka My Best Friend) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, (more)
Paranoia grips a bourgeois European family when a series of menacing videotapes begin turning up on their doorstep in Piano Teacher director Michael Haneke's dark drama. From the outside, Georges (Daniel Auteuil), Anne (Juliette Binoche), and son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky) are the typical middle-class European family, but when a series of mysterious videotapes accompanied by morbid drawings reveal that someone has been monitoring their house, Georges begins to suspect that his past has come back to haunt him. It was during France's occupation of Algeria that Georges wronged a young Algerian boy named Majid (Maurice Bénichou), and as the enraged father and husband begins tracking down his former friend, the line between victim and predator becomes increasingly blurred. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, (more)
Euro screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil star, respectively, as French cops Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, in Olivier Marchal's tough-as-steel policier 36 Quai des Orfevres. The story unravels at the titular Parisian police headquarters, where Klein (who heads up the department's anti-crime unit) and Vrinks (who manages the "search and action squad") go head-to-head -- competing with one another not only to succeed their boss, but to be the first to solve an ongoing series of security-van robberies. Ultimately, the men resort to sabotaging one another, and thus set the stage for an ongoing series of twists, turns, reversals, and betrayals. Valeria Golino and Catherine Marchal co-star; Olivier Marchal co-authored the script with Dominique Loiseau, Julien Rappeneau, and Franck Mancuso. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 2003
French filmmaker Hélène Angel directs the medieval drama Rencontre avec le dragon (The Red Knight). Daniel Auteuil stars as the titular knight, an immortal adventurer named Guillaume de Montauban who was scarred in a terrible fire. Naïve teenager Felix de Sisteron (Nicolas Nollet) wanders out to join the hero on his adventures. Meanwhile, Guillaume travels with Raoul de Vautadour (Sergi Lopez), a man who unwittingly turns into a wild beast at night. Gilbert Melki plays the bad guy, Micholas Mespoulede. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Nicolas Nollet, (more)
Antoine (Daniel Auteuil of The Closet), the busy manager of a fancy restaurant, cuts through a park in his rush to meet his frustrated girlfriend, Christine (Marilyne Canto), when he stumbles across Louis (José Garcia) attempting to hang himself. Antoine foils his efforts and takes the intensely phobic, despondent klutz home, much to Christine's chagrin. Lovesick Louis recalls that he's sent his "suicide note" to his elderly grandparents, so Antoine goes with him to intercept the letter. Antoine finds himself taking responsibility for Louis' life, getting him a job as a sommelier at the restaurant (despite his total lack of knowledge about wine and his nervousness around strangers) and going to visit Louis' ex-girlfriend, Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain of Alias Betty), a florist, and the cause of his heartbreak. Antoine finds that Blanche has a new boyfriend, and cunningly arranges for her to discover his infidelity. But when he offers Blanche comfort, she begins to feel drawn to him. With Antoine's encouragement, Louis gradually develops a newfound confidence, dressing better and excelling at work, all with an eye toward winning Blanche back. Antoine, meanwhile, is falling apart as he gets more involved in trying to fix Louis' life. Christine breaks up with him, and he struggles to hold it together at work. Worse yet, he finds himself increasingly attracted to Blanche, and conflicted in his allegiance to Louis. Pierre Salvadori's romantic farce Après vous... was shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendezvous With French Cinema in 2004. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, José Garcia, (more)
- 2003
Pascal Bonitzer's heavily plotted comedy Petites Coupures (Small Cuts) opens with journalist Bruno (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife, Gaelle (Emmanuelle Devos), having it out over his affair with Nathalie (Ludivine Sagnier). After an invitation from Bruno's uncle Gerard (Jean Yanne), Bruno and Nathalie travel to the town where Gerard is mayor. Bruno learns that his aunt is having an affair. Gerard is aware of his wife's infidelity and asks Bruno to take a letter to the man who has cuckolded him, a doctor named Verekher (Hanns Zischler). On his way to the doctor's home he meets Marie (Dinara Droukarova), and once there he encounters the mysterious Beatrice (Kristin Scott Thomas). Small Cuts was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
- 2002
With Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'Emploi du Temps) as an inspiration, actress-turned-director Nicole Garcia's fourth feature film, L'Adversaire, is a fictionalized account of what may have gone through the mind of real-life serial killer Jean-Claude Romand. Daniel Auteuil portrays Jean-Marc Faure, who, like Romand, had fooled his friends, family, and the bank for 18 years. Though those who knew Faure believed he was a physician employed by the World Health Organization in Geneva, he actually had no qualifications for the position, and had never held a real job. As part of the façade, Faure commuted to Switzerland daily, and obviously knew his way around the WHO. However, he had no job to perform there. Though he acquired an enormous overdraft at the bank, they believed he was a well-known doctor, and incorrectly assumed he would repay them shortly. Nearly two decades after his original untruth, Faure is nearly found out. Rather than enduring the shame of his long-time fraud, Faure opts to murder his wife, children, and parents. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Géraldine Pailhas, (more)
While there are plenty of stories about gay men who have pretended to be straight for the sake of their careers, this tart comedy from France considers the dilemma of a straight man doing just the opposite. Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is an accountant whose personality is bland to the point of being nonexistent; he's been down in the dumps ever since his wife left him two years ago, and he becomes even more depressed when he learns that his boss is planning on firing him after 20 years of loyal service. Francois is seriously considering suicide until his next-door neighbor Belone (Michel Aumont) comes up with a plan to save his career. Belone finds some photos snapped at an especially randy gay nightclub, and using his computer, he pastes Francois' face over that of one of the participants. He sends copies of the doctored picture to several of Francois' co-workers, and soon everyone at the office is convinced the quiet little man has a flamboyant secret life. The firm's CEO, Kopel (Jean Rochefort), now has second thoughts about firing Francois, since letting an employee go who is known to be gay could invite a sexual discrimination suit. Meanwhile, the firm's public relations man, Guillaume (Thierry Lhermitte), is dealing with Felix (Gérard Depardieu), an employee relations executive who is well known as a narrow-minded thug. In order to counter charges that he's a rampant homophobe, Guillaume instructs Felix to make friends with Francois, and soon Felix is spending so much time with Francois (while fighting his own internal revulsion) that his wife wonders if he's seeing another woman. Le Placard was writer and director Francis Veber's first film after his international hit Le Diner de Cons -- in which the leading character was also named Francois Pignon. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
Long-established director Emir Kusturica makes his acting debut in Patrice Leconte's 19th century tale of a loyal, strong-willed woman who follows her soldier husband to a desolate French territory off the coast of Newfoundland. Madame La (Juliette Binoche) lives in marital bliss on the island of Saint-Pierre with her loving, oddball husband (Daniel Auteuil), simply called "the Captain" by his charges. Their world is upset one night, however, when two visiting sailors on a bender murder a local citizen. Neel (Kusturica) is sentenced to death, but the other one dies in a carriage accident before reaching prison. As the island waits for a guillotine (or "widow") to be shipped from the French government, Madame La does her best to convince the townspeople that Neel is genuinely good of heart and doesn't deserve a bloody fate. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre marks the second time that Auteuil has worked with director Leconte: their first effort, La Fille Sur la Pont, earned him a Best Actor award at the Cesars, France's equivalent to the Academy Awards. La Veuve screened at the 2000 Cannes and Toronto film festivals. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, (more)
Daniel Auteuil stars as the infamous Marquis de Sade, who at the beginning of Sade, is serving a sentence in Paris' grim Saint Lazarde prison. The year is 1794, and Sade is being persecuted for his steadfast atheism, which runs counter to the beliefs of Robespierre, France's terrifying revolutionary leader. The Marquis is granted something of a reprieve when he is transferred -- courtesy of his mistress Sensible (Marianne Denicourt) -- to Picpus, a former convent that now serves as the equivalent of a luxury prison. Although Picpus is not without its own guillotine and mass grave, Sade is more concerned with the blossoming Emilie (Isild Le Besco). Meanwhile, Sensible, who has a son who calls Sade "Papa," is forced to share the bed of her own protector, Fournier (Gregoire Colin), a moody lout who hates Sade and works for none other than Robespierre. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Marianne Denicourt, (more)
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