Gilles Lellouche Movies

Married men engage in adulterous affairs while using every trick in the book to conceal their infidelities in this comedy anthology reteaming Oscar-winners Jean Dujardin and Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist). Additional actors/directors include Emmanuelle Bercot, Gilles Lellouche, Eric Lartigau, Fred Cavayé, and Alexandre Courtes. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A hard-working husband and father finds his family life in shambles after being forced into early retirement. Jean-Paul and his wife Anne have been together for decades. Their daughter Cathie has just gotten engaged to a working class commoner, and their son Matthieu is struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. Shortly after kissing his lifelong career goodbye, Jean-Paul becomes convinced he has terminal cancer, and considers taking his own life. In desperate need of a vacation, Jean-Paul goes away to spend some time on his own. Returning home to find Annie in bed with one of his former colleagues, the embattled family man finally snaps. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A handful of old friends make some unexpected discoveries about one another in this comedy-drama from French writer and director Guillaume Canet. Eight pals who are settling into middle age have observed an annual tradition for years in which they get together to enjoy some vacation time. However, fate puts a damper on this year's gathering when one of the group, Ludo (Jean Dujardin), ends up in the hospital after an auto accident. His friends decide to go away together anyway, but Ludo's troubles portend a week of difficult feelings and awkward situations. Max (Francois Cluzet), who is paying host this year at his summer home, is startled by a declaration of love from Vincent (Benoit Magimel), which comes as an unwelcome surprise to the married and very straight Max. Meanwhile, Marie (Marion Cotillard), Eric (Gilles Lellouche), and Antoine (Laurent Lafitte) are all dealing with various forms of romantic disappointment, and seemingly everyone has a skeleton in the closet that he or she is hiding from the group. Les Petits Mouchoirs (aka Little White Lies) received its world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Love and life pose dilemmas for a handful of friends in the City of Lights in this romantic drama from French filmmaker Cedric Klapisch. Pierre (Romain Duris) has enjoyed a successful career as a dancer performing in Parisian nightclubs, but when he's diagnosed with a serious heart condition, his doctor warns him that the strain of his work could kill him. Pierre must reinvent his life, and as he ponders his future and his mortality, he turns to his sister, Élise (Juliette Binoche), a social worker and single mother, for help. Élise is facing some life changes of her own; she's tired of being alone, and has developed an infatuation with Jean (Albert Dupontel), a grocer who sells his wares in the city's open-air market. But Jean is recently divorced and is still preoccupied with his former wife, Caroline (Julie Ferrier). Pierre also finds himself falling from afar for a lovely college student named Laetitia (Melanie Laurent), but he has a rival for her affections in Roland (Fabrice Luchini), one of her professors, who is considerably older than her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This tough and gritty French-language crime drama represents the premier installment in a two-part series of features on the life and doings of notorious Gallic hood Jacques Mesrine (1936-1979). Mesrine is played, in both installments, by actor Vincent Cassel, who reportedly underwent massive weight gain and weight loss to convincingly portray the volatile Mesrine at various periods of his life. Director Jean-François Richet begins in 1979, with Mesrine's uncommonly violent death, whereby he and a beautiful young woman are suddenly (and fatally) ambushed by Parisian police not far from Mesrine's place of birth. Richet then flashes back to the Franco-Algerian War of the late '50s and a brutal interrogation undergone by Mesrine. Following a military discharge, Mesrine returns to his parents' suburb of Clichy, where his dad has arranged a pathetic job for him in a lace-making factory. Never one to take humiliation lying down, Jacques perceives burglary, larceny, and racketeering as much-superior options and decides to pursue a life of crime via a "business partnership" with childhood buddy Paul (Gilles Lellouche), who works for mobster Guido (Gérard Depardieu).

As the years pass, Jacques works his way up through the ranks of the underworld; via Paul, he also meets and falls hard for two women: Pigalle streetwalker Sarah (Florence Thomassin), and Sofia (Elena Anaya), a beautiful Spanish woman with whom he cohabitates after doing time in a French prison. Following a brief and unsuccessful attempt to "go straight," Jacques reconnects with Guido, then finds it necessary to escape from France to Canada with his new mistress, Jeanne (Cécile De France). Unfortunately, another prison sentence is waiting for him there, replete with brutal solitary confinement, but the possibility of a daring escape beckons. The second half of the Mesrine saga, entitled Mesrine: L'Énnemi Public No. 1 for French release, followed immediately after and picks up where this installment wraps. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

An innocent man is on the run after he's accused of murder and his spouse seemingly returns from the grave in this thriller from France. Alex Beck (François Cluzet) is a doctor who has slowly been putting his life back together after his wife Margot was murdered by a serial killer. Eight years on, Alex is doing well enough until he finds himself implicated in the murder of two people, with plenty of evidence pointing to him as the killer even though he knows nothing of the crimes. The same day, Alex receives an e-mail that appears to be from Margot (Marie-Josée Croze), which includes a link to a video clip that seems to be recent and features his late wife looking alive and well. Margot's message warns Alex that they are both being watched, and he struggles to stay one step ahead of the law as a gang of strong-arm men intimidate Alex's friends into telling whatever they might know about him. Alex's sister Anne (Marina Hands) persuades her well-to-do lover Helene (Kristin Scott Thomas) to hire a well respected attorney, Elisabeth Feldman (Nathalie Baye), to handle Alex's case. While Elisabeth tries to keep Alex out of jail, she learns that her client has a warrant out for his arrest, and Alex goes on the lam while he and his lawyer struggle to find out the truth about the murder as well as Margot's reappearance. Tell No One (aka Ne Le Dis a Personne) was based on the international best-selling novel by Harlan Coben. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Part romantic comedy and part black comedy, director Yann Samuell's 2003 feature film debut Jeux d'Enfants (Love Me if You Dare) follows the exploits of two young would-be lovers as they go from childhood to adulthood with themselves as the greatest hurdle to their own happiness. Julien and Sophie first meet at the age of eight when both are undergoing great trauma: Julien is watching his mother die and Sophie has become the focus of intense hazing at the hands of some fellow schoolmates. On one fateful day, Julien decides to stick up for Sophie and pulls a practical joke on her tormentors. Henceforth, the two embark on a close friendship that revolves around daring each other to pull increasingly audacious practical jokes, rather than on the seemingly obvious intimate relationship they seem dangerously close to discovering at any moment. Jeux d'Enfants was selected for inclusion into the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival as well as that same year's Telluride International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi