Carole Bouquet Movies

Fate brings together two people with seemingly nothing in common in this French romantic comedy. Helene (Carole Bouquet) is a single mother living in an upscale apartment complex in Paris with her teenage son Jeremy (Jean Senejoux). Helene is a successful author and a bit of a control freak who lives a carefully ordered existence. However, the same can't be said for her new next-door neighbor Valentin (Marc Lavoine), an aging slacker has lost both his job and his flat and will be spending the next few months in his uncle's spare home in Paris. Helene is more than a little appalled with Valentin and his lack of ambition and fashion sense, but her cat keeps finding its way into his apartment, and they can't seem to avoid one another. Valentin also strikes up a friendship with Jeremy, who offers the sort of male role model that's been missing in his life. Despite her initial annoyance with Valentin, Helene begins to warm to her new neighbor, but can love stand a chance with this mismatched pair? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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 Thirties. Yves Treguier (($Emile Berling) is a fourteen 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, All Movie Guide

In Housewarming (the original title of which translates as Remodeling: You Know When It Starts...), Carole Bouquet stars as Chantal Letellier, a wealthy, powerful, and happily divorced Paris attorney who devotes a lot of her time to helping the city's poorly treated immigrants. Chantal literally dances her way through the courtroom, winning over the judges with ease. Her busy life seems to be going swimmingly until she decides to remodel her massive apartment. She hires a brilliant but mercurial former client from Colombia, Eduardo (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo), as her architect. He and his illegal immigrant crew are highly qualified, just not in the jobs they've been hired to do, and they quickly begin to demolish her home. A few other problems arise. Poncin (Jean-Pierre Castaldi), an obnoxious wealthy former client, has fallen in love with Chantal and begun stalking her. Her young daughter, Pulchérie (Giulia Dussolier), apparently has a crush on a worker with a questionable background who speaks no French and calls himself Betamax (Geovanny Tituaña). Chantal's teenaged son, Martin (Ferdinand Chesnais), quickly grows irritated with the destruction, and the workers' devil-may-care attitude. As Eduardo's ambitions grow, and the project's costs mount, Chantal's immense reserve of patience begins to wane. Housewarming, directed by Brigitte Roüan, marks the last filmed appearance by legendary producer Humbert Balsan, who committed suicide in 2005. The film also stars Aldo Maccione, Didier Flamand, Sotigui Kouyaté, Bernard Menez, and Françoise Brion. Housewarming was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in 2006. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A budding misfit finds his troubles are just beginning when he's sent to a school run by his mom and dad in this comedy from France. Daniel (Damien Jouillerot) is the overweight and socially inept son of Pierre (Olivier Gourmet) and Genevieve (Carole Bouquet), a couple who run a boarding school for troubled kids. 15-year-old Daniel is having a hard time with the physical and emotional trials of adolescence, and things don't improve a bit for him when his folks enroll him in their school, especially since most of the students are convinced he's getting an easy ride. Daniel makes friends with Zygelman (Raphael Goldman), but when Zygelman is thrown out of school after an incident involving the undergarments of a female classmate, Daniel falls in with Jean-Claude (Franc Bruneau), a student with a criminal streak who brings Daniel in as an assistant in his latest illegal business venture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A group of friends and mutual acquaintances embark on a number of vacations -- concealed or otherwise -- for relaxation and unexpected romantic hijinks in French actor/director Michel Blanc's fourth directorial effort, the romantic ensemble comedy See How They Run. While hosting a dinner party, the well-to-do Elizabeth (Charlotte Rampling) and Bertrand Lannier (Jacques Dutronc) learn that their neighbors Veronique (Karin Viard) and Jerome (Denis Podalydes) -- who used to be successful but are currently hiding their financial woes -- will be vacationing in the same resort town at the same time. Impulsively, Elizabeth invites her friend, and fellow dinner party guest, Julie (Clotilde Courau), to join them and thus make a party out of the event. However, Bertrand backs out of the trip while claiming to have to work -- only to schedule a rendezvous with his lover, his transsexual secretary (Mickael Dolmen), instead. Meanwhile, the Lannier's teenaged daughter, Emilie (Lou Doillon), has been planning a parentally endorsed vacation to the United States with one of her friends, but is in actuality going on a romantic retreat with one of her father's employees, Kevin (Sami Bouajila). As the separate excursions commence, a number of romantic couplings spring up -- as well as a number of new friendships -- that will have long-lasting effects on all of the vacationers' lives. See How They Run received the honor of being selected for inclusion into the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

This is a comedy with an edge about a world-famous cellist, Jascha Steg, in love with Ana, a violinist. Jascha's world tour with a Schumann concerto brings him to perform a concert in Evian. His parents, whom he has not seen for a long time, have come with his uncle to see him perform. But Jascha has no peace of mind because Ana is there with her husband. Two days spent by a lake, and a picnic in the mountains when all the characters reveal the most hidden aspects of their personalities, drastically transform his life and consequently his art. The film reflects the difficulties confronted by an artist when he tries to reach people close to his heart. Veterans Philippe Noiret and Carole Bouquet carry their roles with conviction. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Produced for French television, this two-part screen adaptation of the classic novel by Henri Beyle Stendhal concerns two women and the price they pay for loving a man eager to climb the ladder of elite society. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

If such a thing as gentle humor can be wrung from murderous misogyny, this all-star comedy is the embodiment of it. The basic point of the film seems to be this: unattached men long to live with women, and once they do, they long to live without them. In this story, Paul (Thierry Lhermitte) is upset about his wife's having left him. He can't stop thinking about her, and eventually decides that he'd be much happier if he knew she was dead. Then, he thinks, he could put an end to his obsessing. His uncle, a judge (Phillippe Noiret), knows of a man who killed his wife more or less on purpose, and got away with it. Paul and his uncle get together with the lucky killer, Vincent (Richard Bohringer), and, on their way to visit Paul's wife, discuss how Vincent managed to kill his wife and get away with it. Along the way, the aggravations women bring to men are pretty thoroughly (and humorously) hashed over. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Amnesty International produced this film, which features more than two dozen greats of French cinema making pleas for the lives of political prisoners around the world. Each filmmaker speaks passionately on behalf of an individual whose life has been warped by political intolerance, imprisonment, torture or murder, as the lives of those prisoners or sufferers are documented onscreen. A variety of directors contributed shorts with this theme, and the ways in which the appeals are dramatized differ markedly from one to the next. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Cristophe (Michel Voita) is a reporter who is assigned to interview the prominent archaeologist Tober (Jean Bouise) in this combination fantasy drama. Tober has uncovered the coffin of the legendary 16t-century killer Jenatsch (Vittorio Mezzogiorno). After the interview, Cristophe begins to experience hallucinations that move from the present to the past with disturbing consequences. Soon his relationship with his sweetheart Nina (Christine Boisson) begins to suffer as Cristophe has visions of Jenatsch's murder. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In a routine look at what it means to finally leave adolescence behind -- even in one's mature years -- this series of mood swings and sequences focuses on two grown men. Francois (Jean Francois Stevenin, the director) and Leo (Yves Alonso) are old friends, and at one point they decide to go out and search for one of their childhood buddies, the brunt of several of their practical jokes. In true form, the men opt for playing yet another practical joke on their friend, but their plans backfire when his wife Helene (Carole Bouquet) comes into the picture instead. Her presence forces them to reconsider their shenanigans in a new light. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide