Emmanuelle Béart Movies
Initially cast for her extraordinary beauty, Emmanuelle Béart has emerged over the years as one of France's preeminent actresses. The blonde, sapphire-eyed Béart first gained notice for her starring role in Manon des Sources, for which she won a Best Supporting Actress César, and went on to gain further respect with her roles in such films as La belle noiseuse, Un Coeur en Hiver, and Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud.The daughter of pop singer and poet Guy Béart, Béart was born on August 14, 1965 in the small southern town of Gassin, near St. Tropez. Following her parents' divorce when she was very young, Béart and her siblings were raised by her mother in a small mountain village in Provence. Béart began acting at a young age and had her first substantial role as one of a group of children struggling to survive after a nuclear holocaust in Demain les Momes (1976). A subsequent stint as an au pair in Montreal led to a chance meeting with director Robert Altman, who wanted the unknown actress to appear in one of his upcoming films and encouraged her to continue acting. The planned collaboration never came to fruition, and, after returning to France, where she began taking drama classes, Béart won her breakthrough role as the vengeful daughter of the late Jean de Florette in Manon des Sources (1986). Following the film's success and her César win, she sought to avoid typecasting, taking on a number of diverse roles in films of varying quality. In 1989, she played a drug addict in Les Enfants du Desordre, while two years later she gained some of her strongest notices as an artist's model in Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse.
The following year, Béart starred in what many felt was her strongest film since Manon, Un Coeur en Hiver. She portrayed a high-strung violinist, starring alongside Daniel Auteuil, with whom she starred in Manon and with whom she had been involved with since the mid-1980s; they had a daughter together in 1992 and separated after ten years together. It was her last highly acclaimed film until 1995, when she starred with Michel Serrault in Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud, playing a dissatisfied young woman who gets caught up in psychological turmoil when she begins working for an emotionally repressed businessman. That same year, she starred with Auteuil in Regis Wargnier's Une Femme Française, in a role written for her by Wargnier. The film, which cast Béart as a passionate woman caught up in a series of love affairs, was not the success it was expected to be, although Béart did win a Best Actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival. Following a window-dressing role in Mission Impossible (1996), her second English language feature, Béart again dedicated herself to making French films. In 1999, she starred in Le Temps retrouvé, Raul Ruiz's acclaimed period drama inspired by the works of Marcel Proust. The film was screened in competition at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival.
In addition to her screen work, Béart is also known in France for her political and social involvement. Aside from being the ambassador for UNICEF, she has made news for her opposition to anti-immigration legislation, making headlines in August 1996 when she was forcibly removed from a siege in a Paris church. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1993
In this drama, filmed in a series of vignettes, a diverse cast of characters tries to pick up the pieces of their lives after Paul's ladyfriend commits suicide. Not only that, but Paul (Michel Piccoli) must cope with having four house guests, including an infant baby, the infant's recently separated mother, another child of hers, and an immature young woman who is the girlfriend of a rock band's lead singer. Their complex and demanding lives add to the distressed man's difficulty in coping with his bereavement and at the same time help pull him through it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Béart, Michel Piccoli, (more)
Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Béart from Manon of the Spring (1986) co-star once again in Un Coeur en Hiver, playing characters whose distance from each others' lives belies the enormous emotional impact they have on one another. Directed by Claude Sautet, whose 40-year career included the Oscar-winning César et Rosalie (1972), Un Coeur en Hiver is a remarkably restrained film with torrents of feeling just under the surface. Auteuil plays Stephane, partner in an exclusive violin brokerage. His older business partner Maxime (Andre Dussolier) has a lovely new violinist girlfriend, Camille (Béart), who stirs Stephane but is ultimately rejected by him, sending all three characters into a spin that destroys their delicate, symbiotic balance. Hovering over this story is an unusual musical motif that is key to the characters' inner motivations. Violins play, and play on camera, all through the film, but the nature of Stephane's craft, Camille's career, and Maxime's profits is that the music can always be refined, tinkered with, changed with a twist of this or a bit of that. That's precisely how they conduct their relationships and lives -- with a fragile sense of security and no idea when to stop manipulating life for effect. ~ Tom Keogh, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, (more)
- 1991
In this fascinating and unconventional examination of the creative process, an artist near the end of his career finds new inspiration in a young model. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is a famous and well-respected artist who lives in a comfortable estate in the French countryside. At the age of 60, Frenhofer considers his career as a painter to be over; he says he no longer feels any inspiration to create, and his last attempt at a major work, a nude study of his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) called "La Belle Noiseuse" (The Beautiful Nuisance), has sat unfinished for ten years. Just as Frenhofer has lost his enthusiasm for his art, he has also lost his passion for Liz; their relationship is polite and friendly, but without enthusiasm. When Frenhofer tells Nicolas (David Bursztein), his young protégé, that he no longer feels the desire to paint, Nicolas suggests that he needs a more inspiring subject, and he offers his girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart) as a model. Frenhofer is taken with Marianne's beauty, and, with Liz's cool approval, he and Marianne spend several arduous sessions together, exchanging ideas and opinions as Frenhofer methodically attempts to create a final masterpiece. While La Belle Noiseuse runs 240 minutes, director Jacques Rivette also prepared an alternate version, La Belle Noiseuse -- Divertimento, which runs 120 minutes, features a different framing sequence, and incorporates takes unused in the original cut. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Béart, (more)
In this fascinating and unconventional examination of the creative process, an artist near the end of his career finds new inspiration in a young model. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is a famous and well-respected artist who lives in a comfortable estate in the French countryside. At the age of 60, Frenhofer considers his career as a painter to be over; he says he no longer feels any inspiration to create, and his last attempt at a major work, a nude study of his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) called "La Belle Noiseuse" (The Beautiful Nuisance), has sat unfinished for ten years. Just as Frenhofer has lost his enthusiasm for his art, he has also lost his passion for Liz; their relationship is polite and friendly, but without enthusiasm. When Frenhofer tells Nicolas (David Bursztein), his young protégé, that he no longer feels the desire to paint, Nicolas suggests that he needs a more inspiring subject, and he offers his girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart) as a model. Frenhofer is taken with Marianne's beauty, and, with Liz's cool approval, he and Marianne spend several arduous sessions together, exchanging ideas and opinions as Frenhofer methodically attempts to create a final masterpiece. While La Belle Noiseuse runs 240 minutes, director Jacques Rivette also prepared an alternate version, La Belle Noiseuse - Divertimento, which runs 120 minutes, features a different framing sequence, and incorporates takes unused in the original cut. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Béart, (more)
- 1991
Amnesty International produced this film, which features more than two dozen greats of French cinema making pleas for the lives of political prisoners around the world. Each filmmaker speaks passionately on behalf of an individual whose life has been warped by political intolerance, imprisonment, torture or murder, as the lives of those prisoners or sufferers are documented onscreen. A variety of directors contributed shorts with this theme, and the ways in which the appeals are dramatized differ markedly from one to the next. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Philippe Noiret, (more)
- 1991
Young, naive and innocent, Pierre (Manuel Blanc) has dreams of becoming an actor. He is a good-looking and personable boy, and he has just moved to the city to see if he can't accomplish his dreams. He gets a job as an orderly at a hospital and is further supported by an older woman (Helene Vincent), a nurse he has met there, in return for his sexual favors. However, in his acting class, he quickly discovers that he is not overflowing with talent, and his dream of becoming an actor grows dim. Instead, despite the advice of a knowledgeable and worldly older gay man (Philippe Noiret), he becomes a sex worker. It has long been a staple of the movies that certain hustlers and prostitutes maintain a distinction between their work and their lives by not kissing their clients, hence the title of this film, J'embrasse Pas. He grows to love the seedy, degraded lifestyle, and seems to be adapting well to his new profession until he has the poor judgement to fall in love with a high-class prostitute (Emmanuelle Béart) and earns the antagonism of her pimp. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Manuel Blanc, Hélène Vincent, (more)
- 1990
Serafina, Pulcinella and Isabella are three lusty, beautiful members of a traveling theatrical troupe touring the French countryside in the 17th century, leaving in their wake a crop of broken hearts. This picaresque romantic comedy is based on the 1863 novel Le Capitaine Fracasse by Theophile Gauthier. In the story, the company stops at a castle owned by the scruffy young Baron de Sigognac (Vincent Perez), who is deeply smitten with the charms of the middle-aged (and somewhat morose) beauty Serafina (Ornella Muti). He decides to travel with the company, and Serafina perversely tries to get him to woo the youngest of the company, the newly bereaved Isabella (Emmanuelle Béart). When the company plays before a group of noblemen, the three women make yet more conquests, a few of them unwelcome, and a series of competitions and duels for the hearts of the lovely ladies follows, before everyone settles down with the "right" person. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Troisi, Ornella Muti, (more)
- 1989
In this straightforward drama, Marie (Emmanuelle Beart) is a prisoner at the time she sees a performance by a theatrical troupe. After the show, she goes up to speak to one of the players, and this leads (without her knowledge) to her being chosen to participate in a special program. It seems that the troupe is a special halfway house for "reformable" prisoners, and Marie is to be paroled to them. Streetwise and tough, the former prostitute and addict Marie at first resists this high-minded program, but eventually discovers that it works for her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Béart, Robert Hossein, (more)
- 1988
Yann (Pierre Richard) has his artistic eye on Florence (Fanny Cottencon), who desires her for more than her aesthetic beauty. His efforts are continually hampered by his neighbors Boris (Richard Bohringer), an insanely jealous layabout and his beautiful wife Eva (Emmanuelle Beart). Michel Creton and Eric Blanc play the confused cops called on to settle the situation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Richard, Richard Bohringer, (more)
In this romantic comedy fantasy, an angel (Emmanuelle Beart) with a heavenly body falls into the swimming pool of Jim Sanders (Michael E. Knight). Hung over from his bachelor party, his encounter with the angel has Jim questioning his upcoming marriage to Patty (Phoebe Cates), the daughter of a wealthy cosmetics mogul (David Dukes). After he helps the injured celestial being, Jim must protect her from his lecherous friends and his curious fiance. Beart's beauty and performance is the highlight of the film even though she does not speak. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael E. Knight, Phoebe Cates, (more)
Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) has also been released as Jean de Florette II in the US, as it is a sequel to Claude Berri's Jean de Florette. Both films are drawn from the same source: Filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance, also titled Jean de Florette. Manon (Emmanuelle Beart), now fully grown, is a shepherdess who prefers to keep her distance from the local villagers. She is determined to uncover the truth behind the death of her father (played by Gerard Depardieu in Jean de Florette) and to wreak vengeance on the men she holds responsible. The more sympathetic of the two men, Ugolin (Daniel Auteil), is in love with Manon, but this does not weaken her resolve. She causes the village's water supply to diminish, blaming this action upon Ugolin and his duplicitous co-conspirator Cesar (Yves Montand). The upshot of this vengeful behavior ends in tragedy for all concerned. The joint winners of eight French Cesar awards, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring were released to the U.S. in tandem in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, (more)
- 1985
In this standard romantic drama, a tangled web of relationships may not be that easy to straighten out for the people involved. Marc (Daniel Auteuil) is a lawyer married to Jeanne (Sophie Barjac), but his roving eye leads him into sexual encounters with other women on a regular basis -- and although his wife loves him deeply, she throws him out one day when she can no longer stand his philandering. After their split, she begins a romantic fling with Antoine (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who moves in with her after awhile. At the same time, Marc meets and falls in love with Samantha (Emmanuelle Beart), a prostitute who reciprocates his feelings. Circumstances place all four -- Marc, Samantha, Jeanne, and Antoine under the same roof -- a combination of cross-references that soon threatens to disintegrate, at least in part. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Marielle, (more)
- 1976
The hero of this bleak science-fiction story is a married man who, along with his wife, survives the mysterious destruction of the world. After his wife dies, he makes plans to seek out whatever remnants of civilization exist. However, the arrival of a group of children and their older mentor changes his plans. He teaches them essential skills for survival, to which they add their own sort of ruthlessness. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Niels Arestrup, Michel Esposito, (more)
- 1972
In this decidedly offbeat and rather arty crime drama, a French fugitive heads for Canada and ends up joining a gang of desperate criminals who have been plotting to kidnap a crimelord's retarded daughter. Things go well until she accidentally dies. Despite the unfortunate turn of events, the crooks decide to keep on as if things were fine. The English language version was retitled to And Hope To Die and cut to 95 minutes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Robert Ryan, (more)
