Guillaume Laurant Movies
- 2009
An underground lair serves as the point of inspiration for this deeply whimsical fantasy comedy (with echoes of Jodorowsky's Rainbow Thief) from French cause célèbre Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children). The locale is post-9/11 Europe. As arms dealers go head to head with one another in a series of violent skirmishes -- suggesting that an apocalyptic cataclysm may be lingering on the horizon -- the unfortunate Bazil (Dany Boon) still reels from the long-ago death of his father from a roadside bomb, an event that left him orphaned as a boy. Now employed in a low-paying job as a video-store clerk, and still trying to determine how he fits into the scheme of things, he gets hit by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting and promptly lands in the hospital. Upon release, he finds himself broke and unemployed. Hope soon crops up, however, in the form of Placard (Jean-Pierre Marielle), an ex-convict living in a scrap dump with a motley group of social outcasts -- all of whom welcome Bazil with warmth, compassion, and hospitality. Sure of his place for the first time in his life, Bazil joins forces with them to turn the dump into a lovely underground home, filled to the rafters with extraordinary inventions and sculptures. Soon after, the possibility of revenge against the munitions manufacturers responsible for Bazil's dad's death presents itself. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amélie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front. Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades, Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere, Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, (more)
- 2003
Jean Becker's Effroyables Jardins (Strange Gardens) is a tale of survival during WWII. At the beginning of the 1960s, French teenager Lucien (Damien Jouilleot) is deeply embarrassed by the quirky behavior of his father Jacques (Jacques Villeret), as well as Jacques' ongoing performances as a clown at public celebrations. Lucien's mother, Louise (Isabelle Candelier), does nothing to stop her husband. Jacques' friend Andre (Andre Dussollier) tells Lucien about Jacques' experience during the war, a time when both Jacques and Andre were in love with Louise. After doing their part for the French resistance, Jacques and Andre are captured by the Nazis and informed that they may well be executed in less than twenty-four hours. Their unusual relationship with a Nazi guard makes all the difference, and reveals to Lucien the motivation behind his father's actions. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Villeret, André Dussollier, (more)
One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, (more)
- 1996
Despondent, guilt-racked Martin sits in the middle of a country road waiting for someone to run him down, just as he accidentally struck and killed another years before. The incident has destroyed his life with his adopted family and ruined his marriage. Now he has nothing left to live for. The first car that comes is driven by his sister Claire. She manages to stop in time, but soon afterward both die. This compelling French mystery follows police as they try to piece together the tragic scenario by interviewing the residents of the coastal Normandy town where Claire and Martin lived. These people give both fictional and true accounts of Martin and Claire's lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Eric Caravaca, (more)
- 1995
This French-Italian drama is set in pre-Revolutionary Russia during 1907 and chronicles the relationship between a cold-hearted, blue-blooded woman and a handsome stranger. The two first meet during a walk in the park. Later, the woman, Natalia's, husband, a dentist, is found murdered in his home. Natalia finds herself the prime suspect in the death. She seems to be unmoved by the whole situation and continues to carry on with her two disparate lovers. One of them is a revolutionary and the other a conservative sculptor. One night she is again walking when she finds herself in the midst of a revolutionary fracas. Fortunately, the stranger appears and saves her. He takes her to his elegant apartment and there she tells him all about her life. Eventually the real murderer is revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, William Hurt, (more)
This visually inventive French sci-fi/fantasy tale began winning a cult following practically from the moment it was released. Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is a foul, monstrous creature who lords over the inhabitants of a small island; Krank's emotional being is every bit as ugly as his physical personage, largely because he does not have the ability to dream. However, he has developed a machine that can drain the dreams of others from their heads, and he devotes himself to kidnapping children from a nearby harbor town so that he can steal their pleasant dreams. Denree (Joseph Lucien) is one of the children who has been spirited off to the island; Krank discovers that he's an even bigger problem than he imagined when his big brother One (Ron Perlman), a harpoon-wielding mountain of a man, sets out on a rescue mission. Once he arrives on Krank's island, One encounters a brain in a fish tank that has learned to talk, a group of clones who can't decide who is the original, a pair of Siamese twins, an octopus that guides a group of orphaned thieves, and a girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who says she can guide One to Denree. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, (more)
- 1994
This lush French melodrama set in post World War I Europe was filmed on location in remote areas of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The film is set in October 1918 and follows the return of Giorgino, a French lieutenant, as he searches a strange and spooky village for the retarded children he looked after before the war. The children have mysteriously disappeared and the only suspect is an enigmatic, but beautiful redhead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Dahlgren, Mylene Farmer, (more)
