Sandrine Bonnaire Movies
One of the most esteemed French actresses of her generation, Sandrine Bonnaire made her name playing complex and often rebellious women for such directors as Claude Chabrol, Maurice Pialat, Agnès Varda, and Patrice Leconte.Born in Gannta, Allier, France on May 31, 1967, Bonnaire grew up in a large family, the seventh of ten children. She made her entrance into the acting world while still in her early teens, taking parts in such films as La Boum 2, the 1982 sequel to the popular coming-of-age film starring Sophie Marceau. During this time, one of Bonnaire's sisters introduced her to Pialat, who cast her as the lead in À Nos Amours. Bonnaire's portrayal of a young girl who uses sex as a substitute for love made her a star in her native country, earning a César Award for Most Promising Young Actress. Two years later, Bonnaire won her second César, a Best Actress honor for her disturbing, uncompromising portrayal of a young drifter in Agnès Varda's Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond). Bonnaire spent the rest of the decade working steadily for some of France's most accomplished directors. Highlights included André Téchiné's Les Innocents (1987), which cast her as a woman caught in the Arab subculture of a small French coastal town; Pialat's Sous le Soleil de Satan (1987), in which Bonnaire played a troubled, pregnant teenager who kills the father of her unborn child; and Patrice Leconte's Monsieur Hire (1989), an acclaimed psychological drama in which she played the unwitting object of a man's voyeuristic obsession.
For her portrayal of Joan of Arc in Jacques Rivette's Jeanne la Pucelle (1994), Bonnaire earned another Best Actress César nomination. The following year, she won more acclaim, including the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup, for her work in Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie, a crime drama that cast her as the mousy, dyslexic maid of a wealthy couple. Following a few more dramatic turns, Bonnaire appeared in Rivette's psychological thriller Secret Défense (1998), playing a medical researcher whose younger brother is hell-bent on getting revenge for their father's mysterious death. In 1999, Bonnaire returned to a more dramatic milieu with Chabrol's crime drama Au Coeur du Mensonge, and Regis Wargnier's Est-Ouest, a historical drama that cast her as a young woman experiencing the hardships of postwar restructuring in her Russian husband's homeland. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
A middle-aged maid with few prospects before her finds a new lease on life via the game of chess, in this unusual tale that marked the first directorial go-round of acclaimed scriptwriter Caroline Bottaro (Les Aveux de l'innocent). French screen siren Sandrine Bonnaire (À Nos Amours) stars as Hélène, a Frenchwoman employed as a housekeeper in a posh Corsican hotel. Though devoted and diligent as a wife and mother, she lacks any real passion in her life. That changes in a single, defining instant when Helene espies a mysterious couple (the female played by Jennifer Beals) exchanging erotic glances and seductive gestures over a chessboard, on a nearby balcony. Feeling sexual arousal, Hélène misguidedly tries to parlay this into her own personal life by giving her boatworker husband an electronic chessboard, but the connection between this and a need for greater intimacy eludes him. Hélène's curiosity about chess nonetheless endures, and when she fails to teach herself to play sans assistance, she turns to an eccentric, reclusive American whose house she cleans, Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) and asks him to mentor her in the game. In time, her expertise outstrips Kroger's and she begins to live and breathe chess, but this very passion also threatens to alienate the woman's family, who perceive a form of infidelity in this new obsession. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Francis Renaud, (more)
- 2008
In a dramatic setup that recalls the opening act of Robert Wise's chiller Audrey Rose (1977), Sandrine Bonnaire (Monsieur Hire) stars as Claire, a mother terrified by the discovery that a strange woman has begun systematically following her little girl, locked within the grip of obsession. In the mean time, we learn more about the other woman, Elsa (Catherine Frot) - an emotionally imbalanced mother locked in a divorce battle for custody of her young son, who finds herself almost magnetically drawn to Claire's little girl after innocently glimpsing the child at a local birthday party. She's drawn not merely to observe, but to covet and ultimately possess, which sends Claire into a maelstrom of terror as she feels compelled to confront and contend with this threatening new presence, and to obtain an answer that will account for the woman's seemingly irrational behavior. But in time, it is Claire whose behavior begins to seem off-center, as she demonstrates a growing paranoia and a willingness to go to almost any length to protect herself and the little girl. Throughout the film, director Safy Nebbou plunges headfirst into a deceptively innocent and placid domestic realm of subdivisions, nursery schools and children's parks while subtly unveiling the potential for devastation that lies beneath all of it. The title phrase - "mark of an angel" - refers to the tiny indentation above the upper lip of each newborn baby, said to be an angel's thumbprint that makes each child unique. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Catherine Frot, Sandrine Bonnaire, (more)
- 2008
Two women are caught in a rivalry over the love of a child in this period drama, loosely adapted from a short story by Gustave Flaubert. Felicite (Sandrine Bonnaire) is a passionate woman eager to find love, and when her ardor scares off her boyfriend Theodore (Pascal Elbe), she takes a job as a domestic, working for wealthy Madame Aubain (Marina Fois). Aubain is a frail and troubled woman raising two children, Paul (Antoine Olivera) and Clemence (Melissa Dima); Felicite develops a close bond with the children, who in turn show her the sort of unconditional affection she's always longed for. Aubain, however, becomes deeply jealous of Felicite's warm relationship with the youngsters, and insists on criticizing her in their presence. Aubain, who is romantically involved with the children's music teacher (Thibault Vincon), finally decides to cut off the friendship between Felicite and teenaged Clemence (Marthe Guerin) by sending her daughter away to a private boarding school. Clemence's absence is a heavy blow to Felicite, and while she tries to fill the hole in her life by looking after her nephew, she never fully recovers from the loss. Un Coeur Simple (aka A Simple Heart) was the first feature film from director Marion Lane, who previously distinguished herself as an actress. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Marina Fois, (more)
The disheartening failure of specialized institutions and the irreparably damaging effect that they can have on the ailing patients that they purport to help are highlighted in actress-turned-filmmaker Sandrine Bonnaire's intimate portrait of her autistic sister Sabine. Sabine Bonnaire is a thirty-eight year old woman who has struggled with autism since childhood. Despite her mysterious and increasingly common disorder, however, it was an inadequate health care paradigm - not her lifelong affliction - that has wrecked the most devastating consequences on Sabine's life. A woman whose endearing personality, numerous talents, and remarkable potential for growth were tragically devastated by a five-year stay in an inadequate psychiatric hospital, Sabine was eventually able to stage a remarkable recovery thanks to the unwavering support of her family and friends. Featuring remarkable footage filmed over a twenty-five year period by Sabine's closest sister, Elle s'appelle Sabine presents the plight of the autistic from the unique perspective of two people who have lived and learned from the widely misunderstood disorder. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2007
When wealthy and divorced tech company president Lucas becomes hopelessly smitten by the beautiful artist he has hired to paint a fresco for his enormous office building, he hires a private detective to discover why such a lovely and talented woman is still single. While Roland is a seasoned private investigator who only uses the latest technology in observing his subjects, he must be especially cautious in this case since getting discovered wouldn't bode well for his powerful client. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Bonnaire, (more)
Directed by Patrice Leconte, Confidences Trop Intimes revolves around Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire), who, after suffering from an abusive relationship, approaches a psychiatrist for advice. Determined not to leave anything out, Anna immediately begins an intimate retelling of her life story; unfortunately, she has entered the wrong office. Both intrigued by her story and reluctant to embarrass her, William (Fabrice Luchini), the shy tax lawyer on the receiving end of Anna's diatribe, tries to continue the charade. The film also features Michel Duchaussoy. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, (more)
Brian De Palma blends the emotional netherworld of film noir with a stylish portrayal of life among the wealthy and powerful in Paris in this glossy thriller. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is a beautiful but mysterious woman who has aligned herself with a small ring of jewel thieves, led by a man known as Black Tie (Eriq Ebouaney), who has planned a major score during the Cannes Film Festival. Sexy model Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) is scheduled to make a spectacular entrance for the screening of director Regis Wargnier's picture, wearing a body-hugging piece of jewelry worth a cool ten million dollars. Laure approaches the sexually adventurous Veronica and is able to seduce her, while at the same time stealing her diamond-studded outfit and replacing it with a carefully constructed counterfeit. Veronica, however, also makes off the loot without giving her partners their cut, and must go into hiding in order to avoid the wrath of Black Tie and his cohorts. Fate allows Laure to make her way to the United States, where in time she marries a powerful politician. Photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas), however, had snapped a picture of Laure while she was on the lam years before, and when he takes an assignment to get a photo of the camera-shy woman, Laure realizes Nicolas is in a position to reveal her new identity to the world -- and put the bloodthirsty Black Tie back on her trail. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas, (more)
Author Anita Shreve's wartime romance comes to life on the big screen in this tale of passion and danger set against the backdrop of World War II and starring Bill Paxton and Julia Ormond, and Sandrine Bonnaire. American pilot Ted Brice (Paxton) has been gunned down over Nazi-ruled Belguim. Miraculously, Ted survives his violent crash to the earth and is quickly rescued by members of the resistance. Things soon become complicated, however, while during the course of his convalescence Ted begins to form a close romantic bond with the wife (Ormond) of resistance movement's leader. As war rages all around them and loyalties are put to the ultimate test, the two forbidden lovers gradually come to realize just how much they are risking by pursuing one another in such tumultuous times. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Paxton, Julia Ormond, (more)
Two people with little in common enter into a brief, impulsive love affair in this comedy-drama. Pierre (Jacques Gamblin) is the leader of an improvisational comedy team known as The Unpredictables, who specialize in blending unnoticed into social functions and large gatherings, then making comic mayhem out of their surroundings. Pierre and his partners Karim (Zinedine Soualem) and Alice (Isabelle Candelier) have been hired to provide entertainment at a conference for employees of a large pharmaceutical firm, where they'll pose as waiters and create humor out of improbable dining suggestions. One guest who is quite taken with their performance is Claire (Sandrine Bonnaire), who finds herself attracted to Pierre, even though she's been happily married for eight years and has two children at home. The morning after the conference, Claire discovers she's missed her train, and bumps into The Unpredictables; Pierre helpfully offers her a ride in their van, and Claire accepts. On a whim, Claire tags along for the troupe's next gig, a performance at a wedding reception, and the more time she spends with Pierre, the more she finds herself thinking about leaving her old life behind, if only for a while. Mademoiselle was the third feature from writer and director Philippe Lioret, one of the few movie soundmen who has graduated to directing feature films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacques Gamblin, (more)
Following up on his acclaimed 1999 work Mauvaises frequentations, Jean-Pierre Ameris spins this sensitive, understated drama about mortality. Dimitri (Jacques Dutronc is a Russian-émigré who in spite of his hale appearance, is suffering from a terminal disease. He checks into a French style hospice where he learns to his great shock that the average life expectancy is just short of a month. Far from accepting his condition, he fights the hospice's rules and its staff, until, fed up, he escapes into the countryside. Along the road, he encounters Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire), an optimistic, unflappable woman who volunteers at the hospice and soon the sparks even though the romance is inevitably, tragically doomed. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jacques Dutronc, Sandrine Bonnaire, (more)
This thriller from veteran director Claude Chabrol is a tense suspense drama, leavened with sly humor, about the fallout from a shocking crime in a small town. Frederique Lesage (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), the new chief of police in a cozy and fashionable seaside community in Brittany, soon finds her job more eventful than she expected when a ten-year-old girl is found raped and murdered. The last person to see her alive was René Sterne (Jacques Gamblin), a cynical and once-famous artist who has fallen on hard times and gives drawing lessons to children to make ends meet. René, who is passionately devoted to his wife (Sandrine Bonnaire), a nurse whose perpetual good cheer is the polar opposite of his personality, quickly becomes the prime suspect in the absence of any real clues. Meanwhile, Frederique becomes better acquainted with the eccentric residents of the town, including a self-important TV journalist (Antoine de Caunes), a small-time crook who fences stolen goods (Pierre Marlot), and a curious pair of married shopkeepers (Bulle Ogier and Noel Simsolo). Chabrol's son Matthieu Chabrol composed the score for this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacques Gamblin, (more)
French director Regis Wargnier's fifth feature film is a romantic period drama which is also a tribute to the victims of a tragic Stalinist episode. In June 1946, Stalin launched a major propaganda campaign aimed at Russians who had settled in the West, offering them amnesty and an opportunity to be involved in the postwar restructuring of the USSR. Many people who believed Stalin and returned home were executed, interned, or subjected to repression. The protagonist of Est-Ouest, Alexei Golovin (Oleg Menshikov), takes his young French wife Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire) and son Serioja with him on the long journey back to his native land that he has missed so much. On the board of the steamship taking them to Odessa, people like them celebrate the new life that they anticipate. However, reality strikes when they reach shore. Many people are immediately executed or sent to work camps. Alexei is spared to use his skill as an accomplished doctor. He is sent to Kiev to work in a dispensary and live in a communal apartment. Alexei accepts his fate but Marie dreams of escaping to freedom. Opportunity comes her way when she meets Gabrielle Develay (Catherine Deneuve), a famous French actress on tour, passing through Kiev. Tension mounts as the relationship of Alexei and Marie is put to test. For the script of this co-production between France and Russia, Wargnier had three other collaborators: Louis Gardel, who had previously collaborated with Wargnier on Indochine; Sergei Bodrov, a well-known Russian filmmaker best-known for his award winning S.E.R. and The Prisoner of the Mountains; and Azeri scriptwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov, best remembered for his scripts of Nikita Mikhalkov films. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, (more)
Innovative director Jacques Rivette created the memorable, multi-leveled classic Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), seemingly the inspiration for Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Rivette generates a far-different mood in this French-Swiss-Italian murder mystery. Medical researcher Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) is keeping late lab hours when she catches her brother Paul (Gregoire Colin) with her gun. Having discovered a five-year-old photo with new evidence of their father's death, Paul wants to kill Walser (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), who now heads their dad's high-tech company. To protect Paul, Sylvie decides to kill Walser herself, and she boards the train for Walser's country estate. But is Walser guilty? ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, (more)
- 1998
Yves Angelo directed this slow-paced French drama adapted from the novel by Steinunn Sigurdardottir about two sisters -- high school literature instructor Alda (Emmanuelle Beart) and her older sister Olga (Sandrine Bonnaire). On an island, the sisters and Olga's 17-year-old daughter Sigga (Vahina Giocante) live in a former rectory adjacent to a cemetery where an old woman (Bulle Ogier) talks to herself. After school, while Sigga does her homework, the enigmatic Alda engages in some extracurricular exercises with married men (with Olga sometimes eavesdropping just outside her door). Polite shopkeeper Jakob (Andre Dussollier) makes visits to collect the variety of straw animals made by Olga. Time passes slowly as long-buried secrets are unearthed, but the pace picks up during a fantasy sequence. The dialogue-sparse film features a clip from Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Béart, Sandrine Bonnaire, (more)
- 1997
In this Austrian-French-Swiss thriller, upwardly mobile career woman Monika Besse (Sandrine Bonnaire) returns home to Luxembourg in order to join detective Schweiger (Rudiger Vogler) in an investigation into the death of her politician father. The situation leads to an identity crisis as Monika tries to understand her father, discovers that he planned his own death, and comes to the realization that she actually hardly knew him at all. Shown at the 1997 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Rüdiger Vogler, (more)
- 1996
When young banker Thomas Murray's marriage to the blue-blooded Amanda falls apart, he begins working with his father-in-law Arthur in Paris and ends up finding solace in the arms of the beautiful Katharine. While he is off loving Katherine, Amanda rethinks her position and decides to reconcile with Thomas. Devastated by the discovery of his affair, she attempts suicide. Her father then makes Thomas a potentially lucrative proposition that leaves him faced with a difficult choice. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane March, Jean Rochefort, (more)
When Catherine Lelievre (Jacqueline Bisset) hires mousy and taciturn Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) as a housemaid, she thinks that she found a treasure. Mr. Lelievre (Jean-Pierre Cassel) seems to agree with her, pointing out that the maid just has yet to learn how to serve dinner correctly. Wealthy liberals, they treat her generously enough and expect diligence and reliability in return. However, Sophie didn't tell her new employers that she is dyslexic, and very soon she has terrible troubles with even such supposedly ordinary things as shopping lists. She befriends outspoken postal clerk Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), who occasionally helps her with the above-mentioned lists and tells her all sorts of gossip about the Lelievre family. Mr. Lelievre, who suspects that Jeanne opens their mail, tells Sophie that Jeanne was charged with the murder of her four-year-old daughter and though she was later acquitted, he can't believe in her innocence. Thus he forbids Sophie to invite Jeanne to the Lelievre house, and the tension between Sophie and her employers increases. What could have been a thriller in the hands of a different director, in the case of Claude Chabrol has become another witty and observant social commentary about the eternal confrontation between the rich and the poor. Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgement in Stone was previously filmed in 1986 in Canada. ~ Yuri German, Rovi
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, (more)
- 1995
This French-Italian drama is set in pre-Revolutionary Russia during 1907 and chronicles the relationship between a cold-hearted, blue-blooded woman and a handsome stranger. The two first meet during a walk in the park. Later, the woman, Natalia's, husband, a dentist, is found murdered in his home. Natalia finds herself the prime suspect in the death. She seems to be unmoved by the whole situation and continues to carry on with her two disparate lovers. One of them is a revolutionary and the other a conservative sculptor. One night she is again walking when she finds herself in the midst of a revolutionary fracas. Fortunately, the stranger appears and saves her. He takes her to his elegant apartment and there she tells him all about her life. Eventually the real murderer is revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, William Hurt, (more)
This homage to the cinema by venerated movie-maker Agnes Varda, often dubbed the "grandmother" of the French New Wave, features an all-star international cast. The story is based upon the memories and insights of the 100-year old Mr. Simon Cinema. He lives in a magnificent house filled with movie memorabilia. To help him remember the important details of his career he hires Camille, a film student to write down his remembrances and experiences which have involved all areas of movie-making. Camille comes once a day for 101 days. Film clips, photographs and actual visitors highlight his stories. As he continues to spin his yarns, the imagery in the film smoothly morph into other images. Camille, when not recording, is involved in other exploits including a romance with a production assistant, Mica who aspires to becoming a director. She also begins plotting a way to get to Mr. Cinema's fortune by having a friend pose as his long lost heir. Many other characters are peripherally involved including Death, an Italian seeking the rights to his film catalogue, and a memory specialist. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1994
- NR
Jacques Rivette directed this richly detailed six-hour drama based on the story of Joan of Arc. In Part one, "Les Batailles," Jeanne the Maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) leaves her childhood home in Domremy after hearing what she is sure was the voice of God. She believes that she can help lead France to victory on the battlefield, and she persuades Charles, dauphin of France (Andre Marcon) to allow her to guide his troops. Part two, "Les Prisons," concerns the sad aftermath of Jeanne's defeat at Orleans. Jeanne is sent to prison, where in two separate trials she is tried for heresy and impersonating a man, with both her life and the sanctity of her mortal body at stake. A four-hour version, with each of the two parts trimmed down to two hours, is also available. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Baptiste Roussillon, (more)
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