Nathalie Baye Movies
One of the most celebrated and well-respected French actresses of her generation, Nathalie Baye has enjoyed a lengthy career that has included multiple César awards and work with directors ranging from François Truffaut (who cast her in her breakthrough film La Nuit Américaine [1973]) to Diane Kurys. A versatile performer who exudes both sensuality and skillful comic timing, Baye has been used to great effect in everything from serious psychological dramas to light romantic comedies.Born in Mainneville on July 6, 1948, Baye, the daughter of painters, developed a passionate love of dance at an early age. Her passion took her to New York at the age of 17, where she trained as a ballerina for two years. Upon her return to France, she became interested in acting and studied drama at the Paris Conservatoire. Over the course of her studies she gained a reputation as a talented comedienne and made her screen debut opposite Isabelle Adjani in the 1971 comedy Faustine. Two years later, Truffaut cast her in a supporting part in his acclaimed comedy La Nuit Américaine (known as Day for Night in the U.S.) and Baye subsequently landed her first starring role in Maurice Pialat's marriage drama La Guele Ouverte (1974).
After working steadily throughout the remainder of the 1970s in such films as Truffaut's L'Homme Qui Aimait les Femmes (1977) and La Chambre Verte (1978), Baye began the 1980s on a very positive note, winning a Best Supporting Actress César for her role as the estranged girlfriend of the protagonist of Jean-Luc Godard's 1979 romantic drama Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie). The decade proved to be an extremely significant one in Baye's career, as it saw her do some of her most acclaimed work. Two more Césars followed, for her performances in the comedy Une Etrange Affaire (1981) and the crime drama La balance (1982), the films' disparate genres further establishing Baye's great versatility. The actress also did strong work opposite Gérard Depardieu in the internationally acclaimed La Retour de Martin Guerre (1982), the psychological drama J'ai épousé une ombre (1982), Bertrand Blier's satirical Notre Histoire (1984), which starred her as a mysterious woman who seduces Alain Delon and practically her entire neighborhood, and Godard's Détective, a 1985 mystery that featured Baye as an unhappily married woman who becomes caught up in some shady dealings.
After a couple of critical and commercial missteps during the late '80s, Baye rebounded with two 1990 films, Nicole Garcia's drama Un Week-end Sur Deux and Diane Kurys' romantic comedy Baule-les-Pins. Both films featured her as a married woman experiencing some sort of crisis and set the tone for the kind of films she became predominately associated with for the remainder of the decade. Thankfully, Baye did not meet the fate of many actresses whose careers are edged out as they edge toward middle age and instead continued to portray vibrant, attractive women in thrillers, dramas, and comedies alike. Two of her more celebrated films were Une liaison pornographique (1999), which cast Baye as a woman who discovers that having an exclusively sexual affair is not as easy as she had imagined, and Vénus Beauté (Institut) (2000), a romantic comedy in which she played a beautician in search of love without commitment. She earned a Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival for the former film and her fourth César nomination for the latter, further proof that the passing of years had only strengthened her appeal, rather than diminishing it.
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Dr. Marc Lacroix, a psychiatrist specializing in brain functions, is obsessed with the link between mind and spirit. To find his link he studies the criminally insane. He builds a secret machine, known only to his mistress Marianne, in which he hopes to exchange minds between humans. He simultaneously wants to help the mentally ill recover, and he wants to experience their madness. He chooses the psychotic killer, Zyto, a man who stabbed at least three women, for his experiment. The initial experiment is successful and the two exchange minds. But trouble ensues when Zyto refuses to reverse the switch. There is little Marc can do when Zyto takes over Marc's life, and more ominously his wife and child whom are unknowingly in mortal danger. Marc, encased in Zyto's body, is returned to the asylum. Will Marc's wife recognize the danger? Will Zyto kill again? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, (more)
The late journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling book on the burgeoning AIDS crisis was adapted for cable TV by Arnold Schulman. In 1981, researchers begin discerning a mysterious new disease that apparently affects only homosexual males (or so they thought at that time). Working independently, and with marked hostility toward one another, an American and a French research team manage to identify and name the dreaded HIV virus. The long-range effects of AIDS is experienced through the first- and secondhand experiences of several unfortunates, including a choreographer (Richard Gere) whose character is said to be based on Michael Bennett. The all-star cast (most of whom eschewed their usual high salaries) includes Lily Tomlin as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz, Matthew Modine as Centers for Disease Control researcher Don Francis, Alan Alda as NIH official Robert Gallo (who emerges as the villain of the piece), Ian McKellan as gay activist Bill Kraus, and Glenne Headley, Steve Martin and Anjelica Huston in cameo roles. And the Band Played On debuted September 11, 1993, on HBO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Emma (Nathalie Baye) has been happily married to Charles (Didier Sandre), a hardworking journalist, for over ten years. They have a son, and are considering having another child when she learns that she is both pregnant and HIV-positive at a time when Charles is away. As Emma has never used drugs or slept around, and has never had a blood transfusion, there can only be one source for her infection: her absent husband. Shocked to the core by this turn of events, she goes through his things and finds an address book with the names of many women in it. Determined to discover what has been going on, she begins contacting every name in the book. She continues her investigations even after her husband, whom she confronts over this, returns. While this film never comes across as an instructional piece, it was co-written by an AIDS specialist. It is also significant because is marks the final movie performance of Louis Ducreux (as the grandfather) after more than fifty years in the business. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Didier Sandre, (more)
- 1993
- NR
In homage to one of France's great directors, this highly personal documentary features those that knew him best, including his daughter Ewa and fellow filmmaker Claude Chabrol as they offer their comments and analysis of his career and his fascinating life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Claude Chabrol, (more)
- 1992
Lorraine and Gille are sharing a romantic dinner at a cafe in Rome while they celebrate their relationship with a vacation to that historic city. Gille is suddenly still, as he hears a voice out of sight that sounds familiar. Eventually he places it: it is the voice of his former flame Laura, a married woman he had a particularly wild affair with years ago. Rather than turn around and confirm that it is really her, instead he tells Lorraine all about that earlier romance, much to her discomfort. All the action in this film takes place in "real" time at the restaurant in question. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Sami Frey, (more)
- 1990
Without undue melodrama or moral judgment, this evocative French drama paints a painfully realistic portrait of a woman who inexorably destroys her life with her constant fixation on her own needs. She is Camille Valmont, a woman whose lust for fame eclipses every other aspect of her life. By the time she succeeds, she has lost her good husband and two young children. The courts grant her visitation rights with the children every other weekend. Even then, she is so consumed by her career that she rarely avails herself of the rights. Then her career begins to go into a slump. Camille becomes so desperate for money that she must take any job available to get by. One day she gets a short stint working as a Rotary Club hostess in Vichy. Unfortunately, it is on a visitation weekend. To do both, she takes the children with her, something the courts have forbidden her to do. Just before she is to go on stage, her ex-husband calls to tell her that he is coming for the children. She panics, steals a rental car and takes off with the children, neither of whom care much for her, in a desperate, if misguided bid to get closer to them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Joachim Serreau, (more)
- 1990
- PG
Adapted from a true story, West German investigative journalist Gunther Wallraff (Jurgen Prochnow) decides to fight sleaze with sleaze as he goes undercover at a tabloid newspaper to dig up the dirt on the paper's own unethical practices. Rising to the top of the hierarchy by working at the kind of journalism he despises, Wallraff soon discovers that the paper is waging a campaign against his true-life self; he must fight to emerge with his identity intact. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jürgen Prochnow, Peter Coyote, (more)
One might assume that the original title of this French production was C'est La Vie. Wrong: the film was initially released as La Baule-les-Pins, then distributed to English speaking countries under a more "understandable" French cognomen. The film is set during a deceptively idyllic summer. Two young girls are fascinated bystanders as their parents' marriage dissolves and their mother takes up with a younger man. What might have been material for tear-stained drama in an American film is treated with perceptive humor in C'est La Vie. Director Diane Kurys cowrote the screenplay with Alain Le Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry, (more)
- 1989
Alice (Nathalie Baye) is the widow of a Jewish surgeon who helps the former diplomat Jerome (Pierre Arditi) smuggle Jews out of Austria to save them from the Nazis. The duo recruits Charles (Christophe Malavoy), a shoe manufacturer whose uncle is a Nazi sympathizer in the Vichy government. Charles and Alice become lovers when they are picked up in Paris by Nazi soldiers on a curfew violation. Genevieve Mnich co-stars with Philippe Clevnot and Jean Bousie in this dramatic World War II love triangle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Christophe Malavoy, (more)
- 1987
When Catherine (Nathalie Baye) is caught with her illicit lover by her father-in-law Paul (Michel Serrault), the concerned father leaves to tell his son Thomas (Francois Dunoyer) about the incident. Paul is injured in an auto accident and returns home in a wheelchair unable to speak. Catherine's guilt weighs heavily on her as she hopes to never let Thomas know she was unfaithful. She panics and seeks a way to eliminate Paul in this psychological thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1985
In a standard psycho-killer thriller, Cecile (Nathalie Baye) goes from her home in Canada to New York after her boyfriend is thrown in the slammer there for drug-running -- she still wants to be near him. Unable to stay past her visa's limits, Cecile literally contracts a legal marriage to an American via an agency and starts working in a deli to support herself. It is when her totally wacko "husband" shows up that her life goes from terrible to terrorific. His insanity has already slashed up one wife, and he is ready to continue on with Cecile unless the slow-witted female can figure out what to do. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, John Shea, (more)
- 1985
Andy Warhol "graduate" Paul Morrissey surprised his followers with his sensitive direction of the 1985 costume drama Beethoven's Nephew (Le Neveu de Beethoven) The eponymous character, Karl Beethoven (Dietmar Prinz), is snatched from his mother's home by egomaniacal composer Ludwig Van Beethoven (Wolfgang Reichmann). It is Beethoven's contention that nephew Karl is in the clutches of a "demon" (his mother!), and that only by taking charge of Karl himself can the composer tap the boy's inherent musical genius. Ultimately Karl rebels against Beethoven's obsessiveness by developing a relationship with a beautiful actress (Nathalie Baye). As Karl's independence grows, Beethoven's health declines, possibly because of the psychological ramifications of watching his surrogate son grow away from him. Adapted by Morrissey and Mathieu Carriere from a novel by Luigi Magnani, Beethoven's Nephew was released in the US nearly two years after its French premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wolfgang Reichmann, Dietmar Prinz, (more)
- 1984
After several years of making films to please only himself, French director Jean-Luc Godard once more invites the audience to the party with The Detective. Not that there's anything so blase as a linear plot or appealing characters, but at least some of Godard's isolated vignettes are accessible this time around. Set in the Hotel Concorde at St. Lazare, the film is set in motion when miserably married Nathalie Baye and Claude Brasseur attempt to collect a debt from mob-plagued boxing manager Johnny Hallyday. Meanwhile, hotel detective Jean-Pierre Leaud tries to solve an old murder case. These two gossamer plot strands are used to tie together Godard's scattershot views on modern life, with emphasis on the voyeuristic potential of the recent video-camera boom. The director dashed off The Detective to raise money for a film he truly cared about, the controversial Hail Mary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1984
In this confusing, surreal, and slow-paced drama that swings back and forth from strange to farcical, Robert (Alain Delon) meets Donatienne (Nathalie Baye) on a train. She tells him a story about a woman and a man who meet on a train and subsequently spend a night - only one night - in a glorious sexual encounter before they part forever. He is so taken with her that he ends up in her mountain chalet, not just for one night, but for many - drinking beer and forgetting about his wife in Paris. Donatienne then has sexual relations with all the men in her neighborhood - and the film steps fully into a bizarre world in which neither Robert nor Donatienne can honestly relate to each other. The mystery about what is going on is revealed in the end, but by then the film - verbose, inscrutable, and artificial - may have alienated more than one viewer. On the other hand, the performances of Delon and Baye stand out against this flawed backdrop, an achievement recognized at the 1984 Cesars when Delon won the Best Actor award for his role as Robert. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1984
In this clichéd, uneven, confusing melodrama about love and politics by Philippe Labro, Sacha (Nathalie Baye) is a divorced woman from the Left Bank of the Seine, out of a job because she refused to bestow sexual favors in the line of duty, and Paul (Gérard Depardieu) is a lawyer from the Right Bank whom she first rejects and then accepts when she sees his noble behavior on television. Paul has become well-established because of some shady moral compromises but suddenly finds his backbone when he turns against the crooked tycoon he had represented (Bernard Fresson) and does so on public television. Paul has given up everything for his love of Sacha, and now she is in danger from the vengeful tycoon -- not to mention Paul's irate wife. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1982
The Return of Martin Guerre is set in France during the Hundred Years' War. Imagining herself a widow, Nathalie Baye is astonished when her husband Gerard Depardieu returns after nine years. He looks like her husband and sounds like her husband, and certainly has a working knowledge of the couple's prior relationship. Still, neither Baye nor her neighbors can shake the notion that Depardieu is an imposter--especially since he's a much nicer and more responsible person than the man who marched off to war so long ago. Matters come to a head when the local magistrate sentences Depardieu to hang for his own murder. Return of Martin Guerre was the principal source for an American film, Sommersby (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, (more)
- 1982
A young woman is abandoned by her lover after she tells him she is pregnant. Deeply depressed and longing for home, she boards a train out of town. Unfortunately a terrible train wreck ensues. She survives and ends up taking on the identity of one of the dead passengers. Now comfortable and secure that her child will have some claim to legitimacy, the woman is happy. Unfortunately, her dead-beat lover shows up and promises to make trouble if she doesn't pay up. The melodramatic plot is based on a story by Cornell Woolrich and was made twice before as No Man of Her Own (1932 and 1949 respectively). In 1996 it was remade again as the romantic comedy Mrs. Winterbourne starring Riki Lake and Shirley MacLaine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Francis Huster, (more)
In the French-made film (La Balance), a couple get caught between the French underworld and the cops who pledge to destroy it. The man is a one-time mobster, now pimp named Dede (Philippe Leotard) who's forced to squeal on some mob-land biggies in exchange for his acquittal from any connection to crimes committed and to get the cops off the back of his prostitute wife Nicole (Nathalie Baye). This one's full of chase scenes, profanity (it's dubbed in English), and violence. It was awarded many Caesar awards (the French equivalent of the Oscar). ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Philippe Léotard, (more)
- 1981
In French filmmaker Bertrand Blier's seriocomic Beau Pere, Ariel Besse plays a 14-year-old girl who is perversely attracted to her 30-year-old stepfather (Patrick Dewaere). Daddy fends off these unnatural attentions, but eventually gives in and allows himself to be seduced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse, (more)
- 1981
Louis (Gerard Lanvin), an advertising executive in a Paris department store, is not the world's most ambitious man, but he has a good marriage and is content with his job -- until his world is turned upside-down by a new, manipulative, controlling manager (Michel Piccoli) who slowly starts to dominate his life. Once given privileged entry into the inner circle of the boss' confidantes, Louis does everything so as not to lose his advantaged position: he works overtime, he fawns, he fetches, his house is at the manager's disposal. His wife (Nathalie Baye), who sees right through the arrogant manager, is getting fed up with her husband's behavior but is not able to make him aware of the extent of his own personality changes. In a pique of anger, she leaves him -- and it looks as though Louis cannot "unlearn" his lesson, especially when the manager disappears as mysteriously as he came. Michel Piccoli won the "Best Actor" award at the 1982 Berlin Film Festival for his role in this film. The film itself also won the Louis Delluc award for the "Best French Film" of 1981. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Lanvin, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1981
The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Jacques Dutronc, (more)
- 1980
In this drama, a provincial girl goes to Paris in search of her fortune. Although she finds the City of Light to be quite different from what she'd imagined it to be, the girl manages to retain her dignity. It is only after she is thoroughly disillusioned by her experiences there that she returns to her country life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Patrick Chesnais, (more)
- 1980
- R
French director Bernard Tavernier once again successfully translates the fragile intimacy of human relationships to the screen in A Week's Vacation, which he also co-produced and co-wrote. Nathalie Baye stars as a schoolteacher whose efficiency is compromised by her troubled private life. She takes a vacation and heads for her family home in Lyons, hoping to clear her head by commiserating with her parents. Tavernier would later expand on the theme of family interactions with his 1984 prize-winner A Sunday in the Country. A Week's Vacation was released in France in 1980 as Une Semaine de Vacances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Gérard Lanvin, (more)
