Kristin Scott Thomas Movies
Early in her career, it looked as though actress Kristin Scott Thomas was going to be relegated to playing the kind of elegantly bloodless British women she portrayed in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), but with her role as the aristocratic but passionate Katharine Clifton in The English Patient (1996), Scott Thomas broke the mold, proving herself capable of projecting a good deal of sensuality and heat as her character embarked on a tragic affair with a Hungarian adventurer (Ralph Fiennes).The daughter of a Royal Navy pilot who died in an air crash when she was five, Scott Thomas was born the eldest of five children, in Cornwall, on May 24, 1960. When she was 11, tragedy struck again when her stepfather, also a military pilot, met a demise identical to her father's. Scott Thomas was left to help her mother look after the family and -- in contrast to what her film roles would suggest -- her situation was far from aristocratic. Although she had an interest in acting, her mother loathed the idea and sent her daughter to the Cheltenham Ladies College. Scott Thomas dropped out at age 16, spent some time in a convent, and eventually enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama to take a teacher training course. Unable to resist the call of the stage, however, Scott Thomas quietly began studying drama. Unfortunately, the school's drama department advised her to pursue other professions. Scott Thomas was 18 at the time and in addition to being hurt by the drama department's rejection, she was also fed up with school. Seeking to gain perspective on her life, she went to visit some friends in Paris. What originally began as a two-week vacation ended in a permanent change of residence, after Scott Thomas took an au pair job and then fell in love with a Frenchman (she eventually married obstetrician François Olivennes, with whom she has two sons and a daughter).
Though her new French friends teased her for being a funny little English girl, Scott Thomas found herself at home in Paris and decided to try acting again. At the encouragement of her friends, she enrolled in L'Ecole Nationale des Arts et Techniques de Theatres, honing her skills and finding the French school to be more supportive than its English counterpart. She gained experience playing small roles on-stage and soon went on to do some television work. After an inauspicious debut playing a headstrong heiress in Prince's Under the Cherry Moon (1986), she worked in a number of French films. In 1988, she was given her first lead in an English film, playing a cool-blooded aristocrat in A Handful of Dust.
It wasn't until the 1990s that Scott Thomas began to attain recognition outside of Europe. Two years after starring as Hugh Grant's wife in Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992), she came to the attention of an international audience in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Her second outing with Grant, the film was a sleeper hit, becoming the highest-grossing British film in the country's history. Following the film's success, Scott Thomas applied her talents to smaller films, appearing as Alfred Hitchcock's thorny assistant in the French-Canadian Le Confessionnal (1994) and a plain-Jane entomologist who finds herself embroiled in family dysfunction in Angels & Insects (1995). In 1996, the year of The English Patient, Scott Thomas fully stepped into the glare of the international spotlight, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in the widely acclaimed film. That same year, she did less-heralded but no less respectable work in Richard III, in which she played the enigmatic Lady Anne, and Mission: Impossible, her first truly big-budget film.
With Hollywood now taking full notice, Scott Thomas was cast in a coveted lead role in Robert Redford's 1998 adaptation of Nicholas Evans' The Horse Whisperer. The film proved something of a disappointment, although the actress was praised for her strong performance. The following year, she found herself involved in another high-profile project, starring opposite Harrison Ford in Random Hearts. Playing a woman who discovers that her husband, who died in a plane crash, was having an affair with Ford's wife, who also died in the crash, Scott Thomas again got to demonstrate her ability at embracing roles that went far beyond the confines of the tea-sipping British aristocracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this award-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel about a doomed and tragic romance set against the backdrop of World War II. In a field hospital in Italy, Hana (Juliette Binoche), a nurse from Canada, is caring for a pilot who was horribly burned in a plane wreck; he has no identification and cannot remember his name, so he's known simply as "the English Patient," thanks to his accent. When the hospital is forced to evacuate, Hana determines en route that the patient shouldn't be moved far due to his fragile condition, so the two are left in a monastery to be picked up later. In time, Hana begins to piece together the patient's story from the shards of his memories; he's actually Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), of Hungarian nobility and an explorer working with a group mapping uncharted territory in North Africa. An Englishman, Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth), soon joins Almasy's team; travelling with him is his lovely and spirited wife, Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas). Katherine and Laszlo soon fall in love, which leads Laszlo to betray his friend, his country and all that is dear to him. Meanwhile, Hana and the Patient are joined by Kip (Naveen Andrews), a Sikh with a gift for defusing mines, and Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), an intelligence agent who knows some of Laszlo's most shameful secrets. The English Patient won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, (more)
Utilizing special macroscopic photographic techniques, filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou created this fascinating and visually spectacular look at the hidden worlds in the life cycle of an ordinary meadow in France. When seen through the lens of Nuridsany and Perennou's cameras, insects become gigantic beasts, blades of grass turn into towering monuments, and raindrops form puddles that resemble vast oceans. The filmmakers find humor, drama, and beauty in the lives of these tiny flora and fauna as caterpillars transform themselves into butterflies, beetles struggle with their day's foraging, and snails reproduce their species. Microcosmos was a multiple prize winner at the 1996 French Academy of Cinema Awards; the American release version features narration by actress Kristin Scott Thomas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1995
A 19th-century British naturalist falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, but he soon discovers that her family's perfect facade disguises unexpectedly grim secrets. Director and co-screenwriter Philip Haas's adaptation of A.S. Byatt's Morpho Eugenio eschews the usual gentility of Victorian period pieces in favor of subtle creepiness. The unsettling mood is emphasized by the film's detailed attention to its protagonist's scientific endeavors, which center on the study of insects and their behavior. In fact, it is his love of insects that brings William (Mark Rylance) to the well-heeled Reverend Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), who takes a personal interest in William's welfare when a shipwreck leaves William practically penniless. William is welcomed into the Alabaster home, and he resumes his entomological studies while courting the reverend's daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit). Close-up glimpses of insect society parallel this aristocratic world and hint at the dark secrets with which William soon becomes unexpectedly familiar. As in Haas's previous film, The Music of Chance, an unusual, highly symbolic filmmaking approach creates an effective drama, with the potentially detached intellectualism balanced by unusual characterizations and an absorbing attention to detail. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
Richard Loncraine takes Shakespeare's classic tale of treachery, Richard III, and transplants it to the 1930s. Ian McKellen is Richard who, as the film opens, begins plotting against his brother Edward, who has just ascended to the throne after a bloody civil war. Richard begins by seducing and wedding Lady Anne (Kristin Scott Thomas), whom he made a widow during the war. With the help of some loyal henchmen, Richard succeeds in murdering his older brother Clarence (Nigel Hawthorne), which so upsets Edward that he dies. Eventually, the crown falls to the young Prince of Wales (Marc Williamson). Richard is assigned to be the young king's protector, but instead, he has the boy and his brother jailed in the Tower of London. Richard seizes control over the country, but his ruthless quest for power eventually makes him powerful enemies, led by Henry Richman (Dominic West), who attempt to stop him. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, (more)
- 1995
This episodic French comedy chronicles 10 minutes in the lives of seven people living in the same apartment block. The stories are set in early May at 7:50 p.m., ten minutes before the name of the new president of France is to be announced on television. The episodes are all presented in real time and as they progress, they eventually come together and give the viewer a complete picture of all that is happening in that single building. Within are scenes of a Mideast wedding that disintegrates into a brawl, an unemployed executive who cracks under stress and accidentally shoots his wife, and a pretty nurse who makes bold sexual advances to her biker-neighbor after she goes to borrow a cup of flour. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrée Damant, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
This lively and complicated romantic comedy-drama centers on four fellows. Runyon is a poet carrying a torch for Kathryn; he flies to LA to talk about scripting a movie and is accompanied by the lovely Tarzaan. Gadabout Josh is seen having a fling with a Chinese hat-check girl and pursuing Cynthia; despite his womanizing, he also still cares for his ex-wife Gina, the sister of Phil, a plumber and owner of a hardware store who is married with two children. Phil is in a quandary because he finds himself lusting for a sophisticated English coquette who just might be interested in him. Meanwhile, therapist Mark is utterly wrecked over a difficult relationship with Tasha. The title of the film comes from a line in rocker Steve Miller's song, "The Joker". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Cryer, Tim Guinee, (more)
This French WW II action-adventure is based on a fascinating footnote in history. Set just after the Franco-German armistice was signed in June 1940, it chronicles the courage of a compassionate French officer who defied his superiors and, acting alone, redirected a train full of German refugees to a neutral country thereby saving them from execution. Some of these refugees represented Germany and Austria's intellectual and artistic elite and included a Nobel-prize winner, the scientist who invented cortisone, and artist Max Ernst. The French officer was Charles Perrochon, a WWI veteran and military reservist who despite the fact that he had only one lung was suddenly called back to helm Les Milles, one of the camps where the refugees are to be interred. Among those distinguished prisoners is a famous soccer player and this thrills Perrochon, a pragmatic fellow not easily impressed by mere intellectuals. Visiting the camp is a female reporter for the Boston Globe, Mary Jane Cooper. At this point the armistice has not been signed. According to the treaty, these prisoners are to be returned to the Nazis. Knowing the fate that awaits them at home, the refugees send Perrochon a petition imploring him to allow them to save themselves. Perrochon tries to assure them that the French will not allow them to be killed, but deep down he knows the truth. Sure enough, as soon as the treaty is signed, Perrochon learns that his superiors care nothing for the refugees and are only too happy to send them back home to certain death. The refugees are placed upon a train. They do not want to go because they don't realize that Perrochon has taken over a train and paid the crew to take the prisoners safely to Casablanca. It is a dangerous 72-hour trip and the suspense lies in whether or not they reach their destination. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Marielle, Ticky Holgado, (more)
This acclaimed British comedy centers on the intermittent romance between a charming (if slightly bumbling) Englishman and a beautiful American woman, who seem to always run into each other at weddings. Indeed, it is at the first of the title's four weddings that Charles (Hugh Grant) and Carrie (Andie McDowell) meet, enjoying a brief but fleeting connection. The spark is rekindled several months later, when they unexpectedly meet at another wedding. Unfortunately, however, Carrie has become engaged to another, a fact that complicates matters for them both. The story may seem simple, but the film is elevated by screenwriter Richard Curtis' ear for witty dialogue and a colorful supporting cast. Director Mike Newell's sympathetic attention to character keeps the proceedings believable, and prevents the film's more serious moments from seeming mawkish. These elements, along with Grant's star-making performance as Charles, helped the film achieve unexpected international success, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, (more)
- 1994
Two different narratives, separated by 37 years, interconnect in this feature debut from acclaimed Canadian theater director Robert Lepage. In 1952, Alfred Hitchcock (here played by Ron Burrage) is in Quebec, filming I Confess. While the great director's presence adds a bit of Hollywood excitement to the usually sleepy city, Rachel (Suzanne Clement), a 16-year-old girl who works at a church being used for filming, is in turmoil. She's become pregnant and has nowhere to turn, so she speaks of her dilemma to the priest in the confessional, secure that it will remain confidential. In 1989, Pierre (Lothaire Bluteau) has returned to Quebec after three years in China to attend the funeral of his father. He encounters his adopted brother Marc (Patrick Goyette), and together they begin searching for answers to their difficult questions about their true heritage. Kristin Scott Thomas appears in a supporting role as Hitchcock's assistant. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lothaire Bluteau, Patrick Goyette, (more)
- 1994
A Romanian soldier must choose between family loyalty and political allegiance in this disturbing Romanian drama set in 1925. Capt. Petri Dumitriu has been reassigned to a lonely outpost on the Danube after his wife Marie Therese Von Debretsy refuses the advances of a highly ranked general. On the Danube, Dumitriu's life is thrown into turmoil after Romanian soldiers are brutally slain in an ambush by Macedonian bandits. In retaliation, Dumitriu is ordered to execute the innocent local Bulgarians who work in his family's garden. Marie Therese is appalled and Dumitriu must make a terribly painful decision. (aka Un Ete Inoubliable) ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristin Scott Thomas, Claudiu Bleont, (more)
- 1993
In this suspenseful mystery, two rival sisters vie for the love of a powerful businessman. One of them ends up murdered and then the real trouble begins. The story is based on a best-seller by Mary Higgins Clark. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel J. Travanti, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
A perverse, dark-humored comedy drama, Bitter Moon crosses the line into intentional camp more often than not in its tale of a kinky cripple Oscar (Peter Coyote) and his beautiful wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Oscar ensnares a proper British man, Nigel (Hugh Grant) on an ocean-liner and makes him listen to the twisted tale of his relationship with Mimi (related in lengthy flashbacks) and how erotic obsession turned to homicidal hatred. Nigel is married to Fiona (Kristin Scott-Thomas), but is captivated by Mimi and listens to Oscar's grotesque stories because of his fascination. Naturally, the whole thing ends in tragedy, but it's wicked fun getting there, as director Roman Polanski paces the film quite well and the cast (particularly Coyote) is wonderful. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Emmanuelle Seigner, (more)
- 1991
The Bachelor is based on a novel by Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler, of Affairs of Anatol fame. Keith Carradine stars as an unmarried doctor who prefers his will-o-the-wisp existence, avoiding any lasting relationships. Carradine is thrown for a loop when the only person whom he cares about commits suicide. Left with no frame of reference, the doctor is forced to start his life all over again-beginning with his belated sexual initiation. As superb as Carradine is in The Bachelor, his costar Miranda Richardson is absolutely stunning in a dual role. Released in Italy as Mio caro dottor Grasler in 1991, The Bachelor made it to American shores two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Miranda Richardson, (more)
- 1991
A sequel to John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed, the Thames Television miniseries Titmuss Regained detailed the further misadventures of bemused British bureaucrat Leslie Titmuss (here played by David Threlfall). As the new Conservative secretary of state for Housing, Ecology, and Planning, Titmuss tried to use his clout to scuttle a proposed property development near his own country estate. Against his better judgment -- not to mention his political convictions -- the Quixotic hero became emotionally involved in the situation, largely due to the presence of toothsome young Jenny Sidonia (Kristin Scott Thomas). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This made-for-cable adventure chronicles the fictionalized exploits of the famed British reporter cum novelist who created the character "James Bond." Starring Jason Connery, the son of the first feature-film 007 Sean Connery, the story alleges that Fleming based Bond's adventures on his own extraordinary experiences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Made for cable TV, Framed top-bills Jeff Goldblum as Wiley, a talented but somewhat naïve art forger. Wiley's big chance to score a con is cleverly foiled by another scam artist, Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas). Eager for revenge, Wiley seeks out Kate for a showdown; instead, the two become partners in crime. The likability of the leading performers keeps Framed alive from start to finish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
- 1990
Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by the director, actress Marie-France Pisier, this drama tells the story of a failing marriage between Charles Forestier (Didier Flamand), a stuffy colonial official stationed on New Caledonia (a French colony in the south Pacific), and his exciteable and athletic young wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas), as seen by their eleven-year old daughter Théa (Vanessa Wagner). Every morning, Mrs. Forestier goes off riding by the seashore, but when she comes back from her ride one day with a torn outfit, rumors begin to fly. Everyone says she has been seeing a young doctor. Tensions within the family build to a climax during their attendance at a ball the colony's governor is giving for a visiting dignitary. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristin Scott Thomas, Didier Flamand, (more)
- 1990
Bruno is bored and frustrated. His attempts to woo Juliette, an attractive hairdresser in the village next to his have fallen flat, and he just plain doesn't like his life. He decides to do something to spice things up and at the same time impress Juliette that he's really smitten with her. That is why he takes a gun and hijacks a school bus, demanding to be taken to Juliette's village. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvan Attal, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
- 1989
The "endless game" is espionage, which goes on and on despite government upheavals and changing international attitudes. Albert Finney plays a retired secret agent called back to active duty. Finney is entrusted with the task of finding out why his fellow retirees are being killed off. One of the victims is a woman who'd once been Finney's lover. Anthony Quayle makes his final screen appearance in this made-for-cable suspenser. Endless Game was written and directed by Bryan Forbes--surprisingly, his first foray into the spy-film genre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Force Majeure (Uncontrollable Circumstances) begins with a drug deal involving tourists Phillipe (Patrick Bruel) and Daniel (Francois Cluzet), and a Dutch stranger. Two years pass: the Dutchman has been arrested in an unspecified Asian country, where the penalty for drug trafficking is death. Phillipe and Daniel agree to admit that the hashish partly belongs to them, which will reduce the Dutchman's sentence, but also subject the twosome to a prison sentence themselves. Malcolm Forrest (Alan Bates), a representative of Amnesty International, does what he can to aid all three of the unfortunate young men. Force Majeure was co-written by Michele De Broca, wife of director Philippe De Broca. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Bruel, François Cluzet, (more)
- 1989
Based on a popular novel with the English title Devil in the Flesh by Alexandre Jardin, this little drama tells the story of Virgile (Thomas Langmann), a sixteen-year old boy who has grown tired of being a virgin, and decides to seduce Carla (Kristin Scott-Thomas), an older woman. Rather to his surprise, despite his callowness, she proves to be quite willing. One highlight of the film is the performance of veteran screen actress Danielle Darrieux as Virgile's grandmother, L'Arquebuse. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Langmann, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
Based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh, Handful of Dust is set amongst Britain's aristocracy of the 1930s. At sumptuous Hetton Abbey, tradition-bound country squire James Wilby and his wife Kristin Scott Thomas open their doors to well-connected but impoverished Rupert Graves. Graves returns Wilby's hospitality by having an affair with Scott Thomas, while Wilby gamboles about his estate without a clue of what is going on. Wilby's cloistered world comes tumbling down when Scott Thomas coolly demands a divorce, shortly after the accidental death of their young son. Wilby discovers that his divorce settlement will cost him Hetton Abbey; he faces this circumstance by not facing it at all, preferring to escape to South America, stiff upper lip intact, in the company of a dotty explorer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Wilby, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
- 1988
Anthony Hopkins stars in this glossy TV adaptation of Graham Greene's The Tenth Man. The scene is Paris, during the Nazi occupation. Hopkins plays a French lawyer who is sentenced to be executed as a reprisal for the activities of the Resistance. To escape the firing squad, Hopkins arranges for another man to take his place. That man, played by Timothy Wilson, is an embittered soul with no desire to go on living. As part of his bargain with Hopkins, Wilson wills Hopkins' estate to his own heirs. At war's end, Hopkins, travelling incognito, takes a gardener's job at the estate he once owned. He gradually falls in love with Wilson's sister Kristin Scott Thomas. And then total stranger Derek Jacobi shows up--claiming to be the long-lost Hopkins! Produced in Britain by veteran TV-movie maven David Rosemont, The Tenth Man was first offered December 4, 1988, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This uneven comedy of manners concerns a young film projectionist (Jerome Ange) who sets out to find a marriageable woman. He sets his sights on two women he has lived with for nearly ten years (Kristin Scott-Thomas and Sylvie Orcier). For some reason, the projectionist encourages one of the women to hire a private detective (Patrice Kerbrat) to monitor his romantic activities. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerome Ange, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
