Marie Pillet Movies
The mother of Euro screen icon Julie Delpy, Gallic actress Marie Pillet maintained a lower profile than her daughter (and thus never achieved Delpy's international crossover fame), but racked up a significant number of French supporting credits from the 1970s onward, and thus achieved some recognition and audience identification in her native country. For the most part, Pillet (unlike, say, Marie-France Pisier or Catherine Deneuve) seldom worked with top-tiered directors such as Truffaut and Chabrol, and instead collaborated with filmmakers whose fame was limited to France -- such as Claude Zidi, Jean-Loup Hubert, and Roger Planchon. Early credits included the 1977 L'Animal (as a trapeze artist), the 1979 La Dérobade (as a young woman sadistically abused by a pimp), and the 1988 Dandin (as a sorceress). Pillet accompanied her daughter onscreen with a bit role in Richard Linklater's Before Sunset (2004). Two years later, she joined the cast of Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend (2006), a comedy about a cutthroat businessman (Daniel Auteuil) who finds himself on the giving end of a decidedly odd wager. Pillet scored her highest role up through that time -- as Anna -- in Delpy's directorial debut, the romantic comedy 2 Days in Paris (2007). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Ingenue Julie Delpy does triple duty as writer, director, and star of this romantic comedy. French photographer Marion (Delpy) and American interior designer Jack (Adam Goldberg) are returning from a vacation in Venice. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be the ultimate romantic getaway, disagreements and misunderstandings seemed to drive them farther apart rather than bringing them closer together. Before they return to the United States, Marion and Jack have a quick two-day stop in Paris to visit Marion's parents and pick up the cat that they had been pet-setting for their daughter. Unfortunately for Jack, Paris proves to be quite a culture shock. Not only are Marion's parents a pair of eccentric former "revolutionaries" who make no qualms about having knock-down-drag-out arguments regardless of who's present, but they also appear to have a particular distaste for Americans. Add to this the fact that Marion's friends hold nothing back when it comes to discussing their sexual lives, seem fixated on food rituals, and that Marion seems to run into former lovers on every street corner, and Jack quickly begins to suspect that he doesn't know his girlfriend half as well as he thought he did when they were living the simple life back in New York. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, (more)
A businessman tries to belatedly learn the fine art of friendship in this comedy from French filmmaker Patrice Leconte. François (Daniel Auteuil) is an antique dealer who runs an upscale shop with his business partner, Catherine (Julie Gayet). François is a gently ruthless trader who will do nearly anything to make a deal, and when Catherine throws him a birthday party, someone points out that all the guests are business associates, not personal friends. While François protests that he does indeed have friends, Catherine calls him on it and makes him a deal -- if he can produce his best friend within ten days, he'll be allowed to keep a valuable vase he recently found for the shop, but if not, the vase will belong to her. François agrees to the challenge, but while going through his address book, he begins to realize he really doesn't have any especially close friends. Over the course of several days, François keeps running into Bruno (Dany Boon), a gregarious and friendly taxi driver, and while Bruno's personality rubs François the wrong way, he notices that the cabbie has a way of making (most) people like him. Eager to win his bet with Catherine, François recruits Bruno to give him a crash course in making friends and influencing people, hoping to find a buddy before his deadline. Mon Meilleur Ami (aka My Best Friend) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, (more)
Richard Linklater directs the romantic drama Before Sunset, a sequel to Before Sunrise (1995). Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) were strangers who spent a loquacious night together in Vienna. Nine years later, Jesse has written a book about the encounter. During his accelerated European book tour, he reunites with Celine in Paris. Before Jesse's flight home, he joins Celine for a picturesque walk around Paris peppered with intimate conversation: at first, about the minutiae of their day-to-day lives and their relationships, and then about their lingering feelings for one another. Before Sunset was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, (more)
- 1989
The conflict in question is World War II; even though hostilities have all but ceased, the Germans and the French are not precisely reconciled. German soldier Richard Bohlinger, absent without leave, is befriended by a couple of pre-teen boys (Antoine and Julien Hubert, sons of director Jean-Louis Hubert). Despite the fact that they seem to have found a lasting peace, the adult world doesn't see things the boys' way, and Bohlinger is put to death. Apres le Guerre is the second felicitous collaboration between director Hubert and veteran character-actor Richard Bohlinger; the first was the popular Le Grand Chemin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Antoine Hubert, Julien Hubert, (more)
- 1988
Claude Brasseur stars in this cinemadaptation of the Moliere play Georges Dandin, ou le mari confondu. Written in 1668, the play has been somewhat dwarfed by such like-vintage Moliere classics as The Imaginary Invalid. Still, it was popular enough in its time to inspire imitation, most notably Betterton's Don Juan and The Amorous Widow. The plot, involving a wealthy man's avoidance of marriage until he is trapped by a crafty widow, is but a peg upon which to hang any number of comic complications and character vignettes. Brasseur's leading lady is the toothsome Zabou. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zabou, Claude Brasseur, (more)
- 1987
A fading television personality and radio quiz-show host is shielded by his right-hand man from learning his show has been cancelled in this situation comedy. Rivetot (Gerard Jugnot) is the loyal longtime assistant to Mortez (Jean Rochefort) who believes the news of the show's demise will be fatal to his boss. He tries to keep the news from Mortez as long as possible as the show travels from town to town. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Gérard Jugnot, (more)
- 1986
Fannie Cottencon stars as Lilli, beauty salon owner and uncrowned queen of the shopping mall where the film, in its entirety, takes place. Delphine Seyrig costars as a mall boutique owner, suddenly confronted with her wartime lover. Before we're quite aware of it, the film has become a New Age Romeo and Juliet, complete with out-of-nowhere songs. Through plotlines as twisted as a tributy of the Colorado river, Cottencon's salon and Seyrig's boutique symbolically merge. Golden Eighties is known in the US as Window Shopping; its title was changed to avoid confusion with an earlier Chantal Akerman effort Les Annees 80s, also known as The Golden Eighties. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Delphine Seyrig, Myriam Boyer, (more)
- 1979
Marie (Miou-Miou) is a young girl from a working-class family who falls for Gerard (Daniel Duval) before she discovers he is a vicious, sadistic pimp. She is degraded, abused, and beaten regularly by Gerard as she is forced into a life of prostitution. Marie later decides she must leave her pimp to regain control of her body, mind, and soul. Maria Schneider co-stars with Neil Arestrup in this voyeuristic and disturbing story. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miou-Miou, Maria Schneider, (more)
- 1977
Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Michel Gauché, a stunt double and trickster who is crazy in love with his former fiancee, work-mate, and fellow stunt performer Jane (Raquel Welch). She, however, is so angry with him for landing her in the hospital due to a badly performed stunt that she breaks off the engagement. Belmondo also plays Bruno Ferrari, the movie star he is doubling for, an effeminate homosexual who lusts after his stuntman. Because Jane is angry with Michel, she falls into the arms of a film producer, and arranges for Michel to re-do the same stunt over and over again endlessly. She also tries to woo Bruno the movie star and discovers that he is not interested in women. Michel tries hard to win her back, sometimes pretending to be the movie star, which confuses her to no end. Just as she is about to marry a dull aristocrat, Belmondo appears in an old gorilla outfit and abducts her from the aisles of the church. Belmondo was famous for doing all his own stunts, and he continued that tradition in this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raquel Welch, (more)
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