Francois Damiens Movies
Wild comedic actor Francois Damiens embodies, in his native Belgium, what Sacha Baron Cohen was to the Brits in his early years as Ali G and Borat Sagdiyev. Under the guise of alter ego François L'Embrouille, Damien made it his trademark shtick to assume a series of outrageous disguises (typically associated with specific professions, such as that of a ski security officer, a driving instructor, or a bus depot clerk) and candidly film ordinary Belgians reacting to his tactless and absurd antics. As one might expect, those who fell victim to the actor's pranks reacted in any manner of ways, from delight to supreme irritation and hostility, but his popularity grew so widespread among European viewers that it spelled success for Damiens and helped him establish a successful movie career, specializing (unsurprisingly) in European-produced laugh-fests from 2006 onward. Memorable projects included the Benoit Poelvoorde political farce Cow-Boy (2007), the gentle Daniel Auteuil-headlined comedy 15 Ans et Demi (2008) and the Jean-Claude Van Damme action comedy JCVD (2008), with one of the most prominent roles after Van Damme in that production. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2011
A dejected, forty-something family man finds his life shaken up after stumbling across a cache of cocaine, and a ringing cell phone. David and Christine have been married for years, and lately the spark in their relationship has gone out. To add to his growing disappointment, David's law career has yet to take off, and his kids have grown increasingly distant. But shortly after being told that he should simply move on with life, David makes a discovery that thrusts him into an adventure he never saw coming. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Francois Damiens, Pascale Arbillot, (more)
The beautiful Nathalie (Audrey Tautou) throws herself into her work after her husband of just three years unexpectedly passes away. One day, she fixates on Markus (Francois Damiens), an unremarkable underling of hers at the office. The two begin a relationship that everyone who knows Nathalie firmly believes will not last, but it's not other people's perceptions as much as their own self-doubt that threatens to split apart this seemingly odd pairing. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Francois Damiens, (more)
A man who ruins relationships for a living may have finally found a woman he can't easily manipulate in this French comedy from writer and director Pascal Chaumeil. Alex (Romain Duris) is a handsome man who knows how to make women fall for him, and he's found an unusual way of making money from this talent -- guys who want to break up with their wives or girlfriends but lack the nerve can hire Alex to woo them away, and once the women have given their men the bad news, Alex makes himself scarce. While Alex has built a lucrative cottage industry from this scheme, business has been in a slump, and when he's given an especially difficult assignment, he takes it against his better judgment. Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) and Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln) are both wealthy, attractive, and deeply in love, but a third party wants to stop their upcoming marriage and hires Alex to pose as her bodyguard in Monaco as she arrives a few days before the wedding. However, no matter what Alex does, his efforts backfire and Juliette seems immune to his charm; even worse, the harder he tries, the more he finds himself falling for her. L'Arnacoeur (aka Heartbreaker) was received its North American premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, (more)
- 2009
This offbeat musical drama concerns Lucas, an up-and-coming singer who spends 10 years from the 1990s through the 2000s working his way up to the top of the French pop scene. Unfortunately, he only manages to do so by stealing the tunes of his songwriter friend Thomas, who has vanished into thin air. When Thomas suddenly reappears at the height of Lucas's success, then, it threatens to bring everything that Lucas has worked so hard to build violently crashing down. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bénabar, Franck Dubosc, (more)
- 2008
The shocking story of a young man sentenced to a brutal juvenile home comes to the screen in this drama based on an autobiographical novel by Auguste Le Breton set in the early 1930s. Yves Treguier (Emile Berling) is a 14-year-old who has run away from home and is picked up by police for vagrancy. Yves is sent to an "educational home" for orphans and juvenile felons; the home is more like a prison than anything else, and adults who oversee the youngsters in their care are more interested in discipline and hard labor than in attempting to teach their charges. Many of the boys at the home have become hardened prisoners who greet new inmates with violence or sexual abuse, but Yves is fortunate enough to share his cell with Blondeau (Guillaume Gouix), an older boy with a gentle spirit. Blondeau was simply abandoned by his wealthy mother, and has bittersweet memories of music lessons and reading poetry. While Blondeau has become resigned to his fate, Yves's spirit has not been broken, and he isn't in stir long before making plans to escape. After two attempts to run away fail, Yves is warned that a third offense will result in him being transferred to a prison for adults, but despite the long odds against him, Yves believes that he has a slim chance of escape but no chance at all if he stays on the inside. Les Hauts Murs (aka Behind The Walls) was the first theatrical feature from director Christian Faure, who previously distinguished himself working in television. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emile Berling, Guillaume Gouix, (more)
- 2008
A bored girl from a bourgeois background decides to spice up her life by giving her love to the man she believes needs it most in this expressive relationship drama from director Jacques Dillon. Camille has decided to intensify her life by committing herself to Costa - a nondescript drifter who sleeps in a bunker and seems incapable of giving love. One day, as Camille and Costa wander the streets of the city, a policeman becomes smitten with the girl and begins to follow them from afar. As the relationship between Camille and Costa gradually opens up to include the curious policeman, the interactions between the three gradually begin to drift into uncharted territory. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clémentine Beaugrand, Gerald Thomassin, (more)
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in this meta-crime comedy that finds him garnering mores headlines than he's had in years after stumbling into an in-progress bank heist. Down and out, with only straight-to-DVD titles under his belt and a recent job lost out to fellow has-been Steven Seagal, the aging action star returns to Belgium a broken man fresh from losing a custody case for his daughter in Hollywood. Upon his arrival, the bad news continues with a disastrous ATM encounter that leads him into the bank and straight into a robbery situation, for which he's about to be blamed. Soon, crowds grow outside on the street, with the cops quick to point the finger at him and his fans cheering for his release. The film garnered a cult following during its festival run and awarded Van Damme his first theatrical release in the States in almost a decade. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Van Damme, Francois Damiens, (more)
- 2007
French success d'estime Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) follows up his children's fantasy Arthur and the Invisibles (2006) with this high-adrenaline, action-charged crime comedy that he produced and scripted but did not direct. At the heart of the tale is a nitwit Marseilles cop, Police Commissioner Gilbert (Bernard Farcy), prone to making outrageous blunders such as mistaking soccer star Djibril Cisse (in a cameo) for an illegal immigrant, and a hotel chambermaid for a terrorist. The other major member of the force is Emilien (Frederic Diefenthal), a hard-working soul, yet one perhaps too genial to be a cop. He's best friends with taxicab driver Daniel (Samy Naceri), an individual low-key to the point of anemia; their young sons enjoy playing together. As the tale opens, a manically insane, hyperactive Belgian criminal, "La Belge," (Jean-Luc Couchard) undergoes extradition to trial in Africa; en route, he temporarily lands in the Marseilles police department for a few hours and bamboozles Emilien into believing that he's actually a Belgian embassy employee railroaded by the real crook, who is now at large. Emilien foolishly buys the story and sets La Belge free -- prompting an outrageous and explosive series of complications. Meanwhile, Emilien's achingly beautiful wife (sex symbol Emma Sjoberg-Wyklund) has been assigned to infiltrate La Belge's gang on an undercover level -- so far undercover that Emilien himself isn't even aware of her role. Upon release, Taxi 4 shot to the top of the French box office charts to qualify as a local blockbuster, topping numerous American releases in the process. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal, (more)
- 2007
A former leftwing activist sets in motion a chain of events that spin far outside of his control - and finds himself branded a hijacker - in this political comedy starring rubber-faced European funnyman Benoit Poelvoorde. For many years, Daniel Piron (Poelvoorde) has regretted taking the path that reduced him from a socially-conscious, muckraking journalist to an ineffectual television weather man. Through it all, he idolized a gentleman known as Sacchi - a revolutionary who staged a protest by hijacking a school bus, but failed to achieve the goal associated with that act by landing on television and protesting perceived social injustices. Now, years later, Daniel and Sacchi's paths cross, and Daniel cooks up the wild scheme of making a film on the social change that has unfurled over the preceding decades, starring Sacchi and the other school bus hostages. Unfortunately, Sacchi himself is now reactionary and unremarkable, and Daniel must manipulate the events of the film to achieve his desired result. Little can he foresee the tumult that will erupt when the tables are turned and he is tagged as a terrorist. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Benoît Poelvoorde, Gilbert Melki, (more)
- 2006
- NR
- Add OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies to Queue Add OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies to top of Queue
OSS 117: Cairo -- Nest of Spies constitutes the eighth installment in a long-running series of movies about OSS 117 (the government code name for Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath) -- a French super-spy and European equivalent of James Bond. The creation of author Jean Bruce, OSS eventually starred in over 265 novels and seven cinematizations through 1970. The first seven film outings were sober and straight-faced; the eighth go-round (the first after a 38-year lapse) does a 180 to shamelessly poke fun of the rules established by the genre. A glib yet intelligent spoof, it joins the ranks of Our Man Flint (1965), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), and other international pictures that glibly satirize the subgenre made infamous to Americans by Bond; like Mad Mission 3, it even packs in an OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin) with a startling resemblance to Sean Connery. The film's comic conceit involves making OSS 117 arrogant, conceited, culturally insensitive, chauvinistic, and thoroughly moronic (he pretends that various cultural institutions and religious practices, for instance, are nonexistent if he is unfamiliar with them); yet the character somehow manages to slide through outrageously dangerous situations unscathed, time and again. The teaser prologue finds OSS 117 in Berlin, where he outwits the Nazis by stealing vital documents from them, hijacks an Axis plane in mid-nosedive, and saves himself and the craft at the last yawning moment. Ten years later, he journeys from Rome to Cairo, where he investigates the death of a fellow agent, posing as the proprietor of a chicken farm. His "side" activities during this jaunt involve hammering out a peace arrangement for the Middle East, keeping tabs on the Suez Canal, and monitoring the Russians. Jean-François Halin scripted the film, maintaining an utterly deadpan tone throughout; Michel Hazanavicius directed. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, (more)
- 2006
Two thick-headed pals stumble through a town where nearly everyone is as dumb as they are in this manic comedy from Belgium. Jean-Claude (Jean-Luc Couchard) is a loud-mouthed, know-it-all and full time boor who is best friends with Stef (Dominique Pinon), a self-styled lady killer who would do better with the fair sex if he could work up the ambition to wake up in the morning. Stef has decided that despite his lofty ambitions, he may need some help in finding the woman of his dreams, and embracing loyalty rather than logic he turns to Jean-Claude for advice. As Jean-Claude explains his deeply flawed techniques for impressing women, he and Stef cross the paths of a handful of local eccentrics, including perpetual mugging victim Greg (Jeremie Renier), misguided school teacher Nadine (Marion Cotillard), sex crazed Natacha (Melanie Laurent), short-tempered cop Laurence (Florence Foresti), wealthy spoiled brat Fabianne (Marie Kremer), and abattoir enthusiast Claudy (Francois Damiens). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marion Cotillard, Dominique Pinon, (more)
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