Melvil Poupaud Movies
Observant American moviegoers may recognize the très beau French actor Melvil Poupaud from his role in James Ivory's 2003 romantic comedy Le Divorce -- in which he played the arrogant two-timer Charles-Henri de Persand, who divorced a gorgeous, pregnant American wife (Naomi Watts) whom any man would be a fool to leave. Actually, Poupaud had already sustained a decades-long career in the French film industry before joining the cast of that movie. Christened after Herman Melville by his screenwriter mother, Poupaud launched off into acting in primary school, with a role in La Ville des Pirates (1983), directed by the esteemed Raul Ruiz -- not a bad start for a ten-year-old. Sporting dual passions -- one for music, another for movies -- Poupaud cut his chops as a musician on the drums, then formed the Euro rock band Mud with his brother Yarol Poupaud, while continuing to land movie roles on the side.Poupaud worked under the aegis of A-list French directors such as Jacques Doillon and Eric Rohmer -- typically pure romances or romantic comedies, often typecast as a snotty, slightly conceited jerk. Early parts included the younger brother in Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Lover (1991), the lead role of Gaspard in Rohmer's A Summer's Tale (1996), and several more collaborations with Ruiz, such as that director's 1994 Fado, Major and Minor. Le Divorce represented Poupaud's first international role -- an attempt to rise above his largely continental appeal and renown.
Poupaud subsequently received top billing in François Ozon's 2005 Time to Leave, as a high-profile, gay fashion photographer struggling with inoperable brain cancer. Among other things, the film demonstrated that Poupaud could hold his own alongside Jeanne Moreau. The actor followed this up with a respectable contribution as the romantic lead in Zoe Cassavetes' drama Broken English (2007), opposite American indie darling Parker Posey. The next year, he had a small role as Johnny “Goodboy” Jones in the Wachowski Brothers' elaborate, CGI-infused live-action production of Speed Racer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This unique French offering is a compilation of 30 short films focused on AIDS. The mini-films were based on over 3,000 ideas put in by French school children and were made by filmmakers on a voluntary basis. Most of the vignettes deal with heterosexuality and AIDS, but one deals with drug-usage, and one with homosexuality. It took four production houses three years to create this inspirational and informative film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anémone, Daniel Gélin, (more)
The devastating reverberations of a profound tragedy echo through generations of a long-suffering French family in this emotional family drama from director Arnaud Desplechin. When Abel and his wife, Junon, started a family, it seemed like the seeds of true happiness had been planted. But while their daughter, Elizabeth, was healthy from the day she was born, things quickly turned dark when her brother Joseph was diagnosed with a rare and deadly genetic condition. Joseph's only hope for survival was a bone marrow transplant, but Abel, Junon, and Elizabeth were all incompatible. In one last, desperate chance to save their son's life, Abel and Junon conceived a third child. But not even little Henri could save his ailing brother's life. Joseph died at the age of seven, and neither his siblings nor his parents have ever found the strength to recover. Years later, family relations have deteriorated beyond the point of repair; the tensions between family matriarch Elizabeth and her cynical brother Henri finally culminating in a violent confrontation in which Elizabeth banishes her alcoholic brother and refuses him further contact with his troubled adolescent nephew, Paul. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, (more)
- 2000
Ebullient drag queens do battle with repressive police in The Heart's Root, a fantastical film set in Lisbon. The city's protector, Saint Anthony, is the patron saint of lovers and also the inspiration behind "the brides of St. Anthony," a group of transvestites that dances through the city's streets in the name of freedom and liberation. They are threatened by Cato (Luis Miguel Cintra), a self-serving mayoral candidate who pines in unrequited love for Silvia (Joana Barcia), a friend of the aforementioned transvestites and protege of the formidable madam of one of Lisbon's brothels. Meditations on pornography, religion, fascism, and sex abound. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luis Miguel Cintra, Joana Barcia, (more)
The third film in Eric Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons quartet takes place in a resort town in Brittany. Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) has come to enjoy a vacation with his girlfriend, Lena (Aurelia Nolin). However, Lena has yet to arrive, and Gaspard finds his attention drawn to two other women: Margot (Amanda Langlet), a captivating waitress who makes it clear that she only wants friendship, and Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon), a friend of Margot's who isn't against the idea of a brief fling but demands to be treated with the utmost respect. Over the next three weeks, it becomes clear to Gaspard that he must choose among the three women, but who should it be? The final episode in the series, Conte d'Automne, was released two years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, (more)
- 1991
A wealthy woman owns an exclusive private boarding school off the coast of England, where young men are taught in French and English, becoming completely fluent. In general, the school is exactly what it purports to be, but the owner selects some of her young scholarship students for special educational opportunities. In short, she carefully prepares them for initiation into sexuality, which generally pleases them as much as it does her. This summer, one of the scholarship students stays behind and, with the collusion of the school's skeleton staff, begins his extracurricular education with the dissolute headmistress. However, this year, the boy she has chosen has some philosophical qualms which must be addressed even if it endangers her life, and his. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Claire Nebout, (more)
A single thirtysomething whose friends all seem to be romantically involved, happily married, or with child meets an eccentric Frenchman who shows her just what an amazing place the world can truly be in director Zoe Cassavetes' entry into the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As if it wasn't depressing enough to be 35 and still single, Nora (Parker Posey) is constantly reminded by her loving but tactless mother (Gena Rowlands) just how unlucky she has been in love. Though Nora longs to enter into a blissful union like the one of her best friend, Audrey (Drea de Matteo), she finds that the dating pool just isn't what it used to be. Things soon begin to look up, however, when Nora makes the acquaintance of handsome Frenchman Julian (Melvil Poupaud). While the two share an instant chemistry that is undeniable, Nora is saddened to learn that Julian will soon be departing for his native soil. When Julian does depart, Nora laments the fact that she wasn't able to express her feelings more effectively. If only Nora could organize her scattered thoughts long enough to remember her love object's last name, she might not have to go searching out every "Julian" in Paris to locate the man of her dreams. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
- 2000
Raul Ruiz's Love Torn in a Dream is introduced with a fake newsreel, taking place in postwar France, in which the cast of the film meet with the producer, who explains the film's complex weave of nine narratives. A diagram in which each story is represented by a letter of the alphabet explicates the intertwining of the nine tales. As the producer explains each actor's role, the film begins. The stories, rooted in folklore, bump up against each other as the film leaps back in forth in time. They involve a jewel stolen from a painting, a mirror that "steals" what it reflects, a seminary student who dresses as a priest to hear the nuns' confessions, brothers who combat each other in their search for a group of rings, a man whose everyday life is predicted by a website 24 hours in advance, a Catholic who finds out he's really Jewish, and a treasure map that leads to a pirate's chest. Each of the main cast members plays multiple roles. Ruiz veterans Melvil Poupaud and Elsa Zylberstein play the lead roles, while Lambert Wilson, Christian Vadim, Diogo Dória, José Meireles, and Rogério Samora play supporting roles. The film won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival, and was shown as part of the "Film Comment Selects" series at New York's Lincoln Center in 2003. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 1986
In this perplexing experimental film, two people are having a lengthy, surreptitious discussion about doing something nasty to a third party. Louise (Anne Alvara) and Leonard (Jean-Claude Wino) are the plotting couple, but is the third party Louise's brother? Is that brother Leonard? Why is that mirror hanging on the wall? Many questions are brought to the surface in this film, but few are answered. As the psychological dominance switches from Louise to Leonard, the film switches from color to black and white. Finally, the couple opens the door and a wind blows through, color returns, and Louise is now a housewife chastising either her son or brother (Melvil Popard) about his writing; and the enigma continues. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Jean-Claude Wino, (more)
- 1995
A troubled young woman goes in search of the father she never knew in this French drama. In 1979, Elisa (Florence Thomassin) is an unhappy and unstable woman who -- after trying to strangle her two year old daughter Marie -- kills herself on Christmas Eve. Sixteen years later, Marie (Vanessa Paradis) has grown into a young woman with more than her share of problems; she's wise beyond her years when it comes to men, and she lies as often as she tells the truth. With her friends Solange (Clotilde Courau) and Ahmed (Sekkou Sall), Marie makes her way through a variety of small-time confidence games, but she's obsessed with discovering the identity of her father, who abandoned her after the death of her mother years before. After intimidating a number of civil service workers, Marie learns that her father is Jacques Desmoulins (Gerard Depardieu), a successful but reclusive songwriter who lives on a small island where he uses alcohol to keep him company. Marie makes her way to Jacques' island in the hope of getting even with the man she blames for many of her troubles. Leading lady Vanessa Paradis is also a successful pop singer in Europe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Paradis, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 1994
The seemingly unrelated scenes in this 110 minute black and white cinematic collage reflect the highly personalized vision of filmmaker Raul Ruiz. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Bideau, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
Raul Ruiz directed this typically eccentric look at the nature of crime, the human mind, and life in the modern world. Solange (Catherine Deneuve) is a defense attorney with a reputation for taking on cases that can't be won -- and proving it by losing them. Her latest lost cause is Rene (Melvil Poupaud), a young man on trial for murdering his Aunt Jeanne (also played by Deneuve), a cruel psychiatrist who raised him as a child and was convinced from infancy that he was destined for a life of crime. While Rene would seemingly need a good lawyer in his situation, he prefers instead to play games with Solange's mind and finds unlikely allies in a strange society of French and Belgian psychologists, headed by Georges (Michel Piccoli), who seems crazier than anyone he's treating. Solange, however, finds herself falling in love with Rene, which only makes a difficult situation more unpleasant for everyone. Through a series of layered flashbacks, we're shown Rene's crime several times from a number of perspectives, which ultimately makes his actions seem more vague with each repetition. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, (more)
Murder and double-dealing among the idle rich sets the stage for this drama. Alan Cross (Adrian Dunbar) is a British detective who travels to a wealthy community along the coast of France in 1938; he's there to attend the funeral of a friend and wants to find out more about the mysterious circumstances behind his friend's death. Cross finds a privileged British family who were close to the deceased and who seem to live by their own set of rules. Helena Graves (Joanna Lumley) was good friends with the deceased, but she claims to know nothing about how he died. Helena's daughter Celia (Gabrielle Anwar) is engaged to a hot-blooded American but has also been involved in an incestuous relationship with her brother Jeremy (Stephen Dorff); Jeremy harbors a dark childhood secret regarding the death of his brother, and he is courting a Jewish woman, much to the chagrin of the anti-Semitic Helena. Cross becomes convinced that someone in the Graves family is to blame for the death, but it's not until someone else dies that the truth begins to bubble to the surface. Innocent Lies was also shown under the title Halcyon Days. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Gabrielle Anwar, (more)
- 1985
This quickly-filmed avant-garde farce by prolific director Raul Ruiz features an insomniac (Michel Lonsdale) whose main preoccupation is surreptitiously watching private matters -- he is a voyeur. He and an equally disreputable acquaintance rape a woman alongside the Seine, a crime made all the worse because she is pregnant. The rest of this slow-paced film deals with the consequences of that action. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Bernard Guillard, (more)
- 1991
Jonathan (Melvil Poupaud) is an imaginative young man. This film unveils what goes on in his mind as he mulls over his recent reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island and the television adventure shows he is watching. This story device allows the highly regarded and very innovative Chilean-born director Raul Ruiz to transform Stevenson's classic adventure tale into a much darker and more complex depiction of treachery and hidden identities. Distributors and producers were not entranced by this transformation, and money for completing the film was withheld, so despite its completion date of 1986, this version, which evinces numerous technical and other problems, was not released until 1991. Gaps in the sometimes confusing storyline are dealt with in a voiceover narrative. Ruiz' work has usually met with a warmer reception, but in this case it received a great deal of (possibly well-deserved) ridicule. One high point of the film, however, is when Pedro Armendariz Jr., as Mendoza, recounts the story of Herman Melville's less-well-known novel Benito Cereno. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1999
Caroline Ducey, who previously gained fame by bearing it all in the 1999 dour erotic drama Romance, stars in this drama set in the 14th century. Alienor (Ducey) is provincial lass who puts her skill with herbal cures to use by healing the festering boil on the king's leg. He rewards her with offering her a husband of her choice. Unfortunately, the betrothed Court Bertrand de Roussillon (Melvil Poupaud) refuses to consummate the marriage. Not a woman to let such a setback keep her down, she resolves to use her healing powers to loose her hymen by any means necessary. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Berroyer, Mathieu Demy, (more)
- 1989
Wise beyond her 15 years, Juliette (Judith Godreche) has developed a curious modus operandi in matters of the heart. She goes out of her way to befriend older men, sleeps with each of her conquests but once, then moves on. Director Jacques Doillon plays the father of Juliette's latest beau; the boy's father hopes to break the girl's love-em-and-leave-em pattern by bedding her himself. In addition to acting and directing in La Fille de Quinze Ans, Doillon also wrote the screenplay and co-produced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Godrëche, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
- 1997
This film is the directorial debut of 29-year-old Graham Guit, who co-scripted with Eric Neve. Young Frenchman Lenny (Melvil Poupaud) takes some cocaine from London to Paris where he makes a risky connection with dapper drug dealer Joel (Jean-Phillippe Ecoffey) and his violent henchman Sammy (Issac Sharry), splitting the scene to get a plane ticket before they discover he's cut the coke. Joel's girlfriend Juliette (Romane Bohringer) seduces Lenny and makes off with the cash. But then Juliette falls for Lenny, decides to double-cross Joel, and departs with a suitcase of cash -- so she thinks. Instead of money, the suitcase contains many valuable vials of the drug Special K. While Lenny and Juliette search for a buyer so they can unload the Special K, Joel and Sammy are in hot pursuit. Shown at the 1997 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Romane Bohringer, (more)
- 2008
An adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1929 short story "The House of Lurking Death," this French-language whodunit represents director Pascal Thomas's third Christie adaptation, following the 2005 By the Pricking of My Thumbs and the 2007 Towards Zero; like Thumbs, it hones in on Prudence (Catherine Frot) and Belisaire Beresford (Andre Dussollier), a married pair of amateur sleuths. This particular outing is set at Christmastime, and finds the Rhone Alps-dwelling Beresfords visited by a beloved aunt, Auntie Babette (Annie Cordy), who promptly informs them that she spotted a murder through a rainy window while seated on a train. Eager for a new crime to solve, Prudence jumps into the case when Belisaire leaves town on a weekend jaunt, and makes her way to a creepy chateau in the middle of the forest, populated by the most unpleasant of families. Inhabitants include an eccentric patriarch widower named Roderick Charpentier (Claude Rich), his morose daughter Emma (Chiara Mastroianni), his conniving and paranoid sons (Christian Vadim, Alexandre Lafaurie and Melvil Poupaud), and a local country doctor (Hippolyte Girardot). Prudence takes a position as a cook at the residence, and when the body crops up, it soon falls on her shoulders to ferret out the murderer. Soon, her husband joins her at the house, tipped off by a local detective regarding his wife's whereabouts. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Frot, André Dussollier, (more)
Based on the 1997 National Book Award-nominated novel of the same name by Diane Johnson (co-writer of the script for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining), Le Divorce is a romantic comedy from director James Ivory. Revisiting the "Americans in France" theme that Ivory explored in 1998's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, the film stars Kate Hudson as Isabel Walker. When she receives word that her pregnant poetess sister Roxy (Naomi Watts) has been left by her philandering French husband, artist Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud), Isabel offers her help and moral support. As the depressive Roxy struggles with the separation proceedings -- which include the rights to ownership of a work of art that's a family heirloom -- Isabel takes a job with author Olivia Pace and has a fling with the bohemian Yves (Romain Duris). But things get complicated when the younger, more impudent sister decides instead to pursue Charles' uncle, the snooty, married diplomat Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), and when a mysterious man (Matthew Modine) starts stalking Roxy. Eventually, the rest of the plucky Walker clan has to come to the aid of the siblings. Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, (more)
- 1995
- NR
This gentle French comedy, takes an intellectualized look at the nature of a crush as it tells the tale of 20-year-old Claire, a young woman seemingly suffering a terminal case of ennui. She glumly goes through the minimal motions of living until she falls in love with handsome Gregoire, a highly intelligent philosophy student. He gives her an unusual translation of Le Journal d'un seducteur by Kierkegaard. This is no ordinary philosophical tome and anyone who opens it becomes strangely aroused and susceptible to love. Not only is Claire entranced by the book's magic, her psychoanalyst also finds himself ensnared. Meanwhile, mysterious Gregoire seems to hold the key to the mysterious book in his refrigerator, and if he doesn't, then the corpse therein just may. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
- 1995
The grueling, emotionally torturous world of French preparatory schools provides the framework for this mystery. The deliberately rigorous courses are designed to prepare students to take the brutal examinations for entry into the elite Grand Ecoles, where a select few will gain the skills and education needed to insure a bright, prosperous future for themselves. The story centers on Delphine, a girl from the lower classes, and the upper class Claude. Both young women aspire to attend the Ecole Normale Superieure on the Rue d'Ulm. Delphine lives in humble public housing with her dull mother and two young brothers while Claude, who considers herself a Communist, lives in luxury with her own servant; she is sexually involved with fellow- student, Axel, who thinks himself a fascist. Claude's younger brother Bertrand is trying to become a cadet in the national military academy, St. Cyr. He endures much abuse as he prepares himself. A few hours after Delphine meets Claude, the latter is seen diving to her death from a tall building, something the school officials attribute to academic pressure. Delphine later learns the bitter truth about Claude's death after she herself gets involved with Axel, and Bertrand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Élodie Bouchez, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
- 2005
Eric Rohmer is one of the best-respected filmmakers in the history of the French cinema, as well as among the most elusive. Notoriously reluctant to talk about his own work, Rohmer rarely sits for filmed interviews, but documentary filmmaker Marie Binet has taken another route to gain a perspective on the director's working methods in this feature. Les Contes Secrets ou les Rohmeriens features interviews with 16 actors who have appeared in Rohmer's films, and they talk on camera about his unusual working methods, his personality, and his spare but evocative signature style. Among the thespians who share their memories are Jean-Louis Trinitignant, Marie-Christine Barrault, Zouzou, Jean-Claude Brialy, Béatrice Romand, Françoise Fabian, and Andre Dussolier; the film also includes rare footage of Rohmer himself at work on the set of his 1978 effort Perceval. Les Contes Secrets ou les Rohmeriens received its North American premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Féodor Atkine, Marie-Christine Barrault, (more)
- 1993
Martine (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) hasn't been quite right in the head since she suffered a romantic reversal several years before, but she had been getting by in the regular world fairly well. However, when her current boyfriend tells her he's leaving, she promptly butts her head into a door so hard that she suffers from amnesia and is placed in a mental ward. There, she devotes her not inconsiderable energy and inventiveness to improving the romantic lives of her fellow patients. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
- 2003
Two seemingly happily married French couples are forced to contend with a number of issues in director Noemie Lvovsky's 2003 marriage comedy drama Les Sentiments. Nearing the end of his career, small-town doctor Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) and his wife Carole (Nathalie Baye) are relatively content with their lives and marriage. When Francois (Melvil Poupaud) -- the new doctor taking over Jacques' practice -- and his young bride Edith (Isabelle Carré) move in next door, Jacques and Carole are ecstatic when they learn that the newcomers have a lot in common with them. While both the men and women bond with each other, Jacques also begins to take a sexual interest in Edith that she is all too willing to indulge. As their affair quickly ignites, both Jacques and Edith find their respective outlooks on life have been renewed while they also deludedly hold on to the notion that they can successfully pull off their affair without causing damage to their marriages. Les Sentiments was included in the programs for the 2003 Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Jean-Pierre Bacri, (more)
