Jean-Baptiste Dupont Movies
- 2008
Jacques Maillot's psychological drama Les Liens du sang observes the tense and fragile days following a difficult reunion between two very different siblings. François (Guillaume Canet) is a police inspector who spent years forcibly estranged from his issue-laden brother Gabriel (François Cluzet), after a judge sentenced the latter to a decade in prison for murder. Gabriel's sudden release from prison ends the separation, and the men both instinctively make attempts to bury the past and help Gabriel reassimilate after years off the street. Their efforts prove feeble and ineffectual, however, as the past comes encroaching back and begins to plague both men. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guillaume Canet, François Cluzet, (more)
- 2008
John Neumeier adapted his ballet La Dame aux camélias from novelist Alexandre Dumas's roman of the same title (the same book that reportedly inspired Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge), making fervent use of the music of Frederic Chopin. The work tells of a couple who meet while attending a performance of Manon Lescaut and then enjoy a series of adventures together in and around Paris. The Paris Opera Ballet mounted this particular production in 2008; it stars Agnès Letestu as Marguerite Gautier, Stephane Bullion as Armand Duval and Michael Denard as Monsieur Duval. The Paris Opera Ballet and Orchestra lend added support under the musical direction of Michael Schmidtsdorff. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnès Letestu, Stéphane Bullion, (more)
- 2008
Gallic actress-turned-director Josiane Balasko - a Euro cinema mainstay best known for her unconventional romantic lead in Bertrand Blier's 1989 Trop belle pour toi - helms and co-stars in Cliente, a quirky and offbeat look at the bittersweet life of a male prostitute, which Balasko co-adapted from her 2005 novel with screenwriter Franck Lee Joseph. Eric Caravaca stars as Marco, a French hustler in his mid-30s whose path criss-crosses with that of infomercial actress Judith (Nathalie Baye) in a local park. A nascent divorcee, she's in the mood for a quick fling, and follows suit with Marco, but this infuriates her sister, Irene (Balasko). Both sexual partners intend to enjoy the liaison as a one-time engagement; for better or worse, it soon repeats itself on multiple occasions and evolves into a deep-seated and very sticky relationship with lots of emotional strings. Significantly, this makes matters very complex and messy for Marco, who happens to be married to hairdresser Fanny (Isabelle Carre) and shares a residence with her, her mother (Catherine Hiegel) and her goth-decked sister (Marilou Berry, Balasko's real-life daughter)). Fanny, it seems, harbors no knowledge of Marco's real profession; when she discovers the truth, she systematically attempts to use her husband's profession to her own selfish advantages in lieu of objecting passionately or leaving him. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Caravaca, Nathalie Baye, (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 Eighties; the title is police slang for the Manurhin 73, a standard handgun for French beat cops in the Seventies and Eighties. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Olivia Bonamy, (more)
- 2006
A girl searches for her father while he is forced to answer for some of his misdeeds in this beautifully photographed adventure drama. Gary (Julian Sands) is a French geologist who lives in Africa, where he's made a fortune in the diamond business. Gary has a fourteen-year-old daughter named Grace (Camille Summers) from a marriage that ended in divorce. When Grace's mother passes on, Grace flies to Africa to visit Gary for the first time in years. While Gary is thrilled to see Grace, work calls him away the day after she arrives, and he boards a small plane to take some needed supplies into a remote area. However, the plane hits some bad weather and crashes, with the wreckage found by a band of revolutionary soldiers. The makeshift army is battling wealthy mining moguls like Gary, appalled by the child labor, environmental devastation and economic exploitation that thrive in their wake. While Gary is held hostage by the guerillas, Grace suspects something is wrong, and she persuades one of Gary's closest friends, Kadjiro (Eriq Ebouaney), to help her find her dad. La Piste (aka The Trail) was directed by Eric Valli, a former photographer for National Geographic. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julian Sands, Eriq Ebouaney, (more)
- 2006
The bleakest and most claustrophobic nightmare of many a European actualizes in director Régis Wargnier's apocalyptic thriller Pars vite et reviens tard (AKA Have Mercy on Us All). Not long after his abandonment by his girlfriend, French police captain Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is confronted by a string of bizarre signs strewn across Paris - strange talismans and omens that appear inexplicably on Parisian doors, whispered words that forebode an unspeakable onslaught of doom. All suggest someone's crude warning, and a riddle that Adamsberg must solve to stave off a coming tragedy - but the meaning eludes the captain until calamity hits: the Plague returns, wiping out scores of victims in its wake. And more problematically, it appears that some malevolent soul is single-handedly controlling the outbreak, willing it wherever he or she chooses. Lucas Belvaux, Marie Gillain, Michel Serrault and Mathias Mlekuz co-star; Wargnier co-authored the script with Harriet Marin, Lawrence Shore, Julien Rappeneau and Ariane Fert, adapted from the novel by Fred Vargas. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Garcia, Lucas Belvaux, (more)
- 2006
The story of how an ordinary guy became the greatest hero of the French space program comes to the screen in this satiric sci-fi comedy. While some folks train all their lives to become astronauts, Stephane (Kad) becomes one the easy way -- along with Yanis (Guillaume Canet), he's one of two French civilian who win a special lottery that entitles them to spots aboard Europe's new space shuttle and a visit to their sister space station. The voyage is being headed up by humorless Col. Beaulieu (Olivier), with Capt. Soizic (Marina Fois) as his second in command. The voyage is to be the last for the longtime head of mission control (Andre Dussollier), but between the antics of the two hapless amateurs and the presence of an unfriendly alien aboard the shuttle, his swan song turns out to be anything but a smooth ride. Un Ticket Pour L'espace (aka Ticket To Outer Space was written by cast members Kad and Olivier, and directed by Eric Lartigau who had previously collaborated with the comedians on Mais qui a tue Pamela Rose? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kad Merad, Olivier Barroux, (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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 2003
French filmmaker Eric Lartigau directs the anarchic buddy comedy Bullit and Riper, originally released as Mais qui a tue Pamela Rose? French comedic television stars Kad Merad and Olivier Barroux are both the protagonists and the screenwriters. As a parody of Hollywood cop films, the story is set somewhere in the American Midwest as fabricated by the French. After losing his regular partner, FBI agent Richard Bullit (Merad) gets assigned to the book-learned cop Riper (Barroux) to investigate the death of a stripper. American movie stereotypes abound, such as shock jock Phil Canon (Gérard Darmon) and sheriff Steve Marley (Jean-Paul Rouve). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kad Merad, Olivier Barroux, (more)
- 2002
Gangsters is the directorial debut of veteran writer and actor Olivier Marchal, who spent ten years as a police detective in France. Frank (Richard Anconina) is captured and interrogated by the police, who want him to reveal the location of a vaulable briefcase. Flashbacks tell the story of the missing briefcase, in which Frank and Little Claude (Jean-Louis Tribes) are present during a violent burglary in a nightclub. Anne Parillaud (from La Femme Nikita) plays the fearless prostitute Nina. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Anconina, Anne Parillaud, (more)
