Elizabeth Bourgine Movies
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)
- 1994
This African comedy takes a sharp, satiric poke at one of the white colonialist's most sacred cows--the humanitarian work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. The film was shot beside Ganon's Ogooue River in Lambarene, where the real Schweitzer did most of his work, and the settings are more realistic than romanticized. The story covers the last 25 years in the Great White's African stay, and observes the changing African attitudes towards the good doctor's frequently condescending ministrations. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Béart from Manon of the Spring (1986) co-star once again in Un Coeur en Hiver, playing characters whose distance from each others' lives belies the enormous emotional impact they have on one another. Directed by Claude Sautet, whose 40-year career included the Oscar-winning César et Rosalie (1972), Un Coeur en Hiver is a remarkably restrained film with torrents of feeling just under the surface. Auteuil plays Stephane, partner in an exclusive violin brokerage. His older business partner Maxime (Andre Dussolier) has a lovely new violinist girlfriend, Camille (Béart), who stirs Stephane but is ultimately rejected by him, sending all three characters into a spin that destroys their delicate, symbiotic balance. Hovering over this story is an unusual musical motif that is key to the characters' inner motivations. Violins play, and play on camera, all through the film, but the nature of Stephane's craft, Camille's career, and Maxime's profits is that the music can always be refined, tinkered with, changed with a twist of this or a bit of that. That's precisely how they conduct their relationships and lives -- with a fragile sense of security and no idea when to stop manipulating life for effect. ~ Tom Keogh, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, (more)
- 1988
Louise (Elizabeth Bourgine) is a young woman working at a publishing house who develops an unusual affection for submitted manuscript. She breaks up with Serge (Philippe Leotard), the printer who loves her. Louise tells the heartbroken Serge she has fallen in love with the author whom she has never met or even seen. She travels to New York to hunt down the elusive author and ends up in a remote farmhouse in Vermont, where she is greeted by Norma (Anna Massey), the mother of the elusive author. The two women wait for his return in this psychological drama that later becomes a thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Bourgine, Philippe Léotard, (more)
- 1987
Molinat (Phillippe Noiret) and Leroyer (Guy Marchand) are two cops who hate each others guts but are called on to solve the gunshot deaths of victims found on an Atlantic beach resort. The two focus on some females who have a psychological problem with men who are breathing. Molinat sends Leroyer to investigate some sultry suspects, knowing his hated colleague may never come back alive. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Guy Marchand, (more)
- 1986
This drama, spiced with sexual innuendo, is directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre, and features Jeanne Kern (Elizabeth Bourgine) as a pretty, somewhat repressed schoolteacher who suffers a smear campaign at work. Someone has been sending her director (Michael Aumont) letters accusing her of lewd and immoral conduct. Matters take a turn for the worse when a photograph of an orgy is sent to all the faculty with one face cut out; presumably, the face is hers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Bourgine, Xavier DeLuc, (more)
- 1984
An unsuspecting novelist is the target of international extortionists in this well-acted suspense story directed by Claude Pinoteau. Lino Ventura stars as Bastien Grimaldy, a man driven to heightened anxiety as the plot against him begins to take effect. Bastien's personal relationships give him enough cause for anxiety -- between his new lover Laura (Elisabeth Bourgine) and a feisty mother (Lina Volonghi), life provides its own insecurities. When he goes to the police with his problems, Bastien is assigned an off-beat inspector to protect him (Roger Planchon) but is still faced with skepticism about his dilemma. In the end, Bastien goes to Berlin, as this conventional storyline moves towards the closing credits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lino Ventura, Lea Massari, (more)
- 1983
In this charming, semi-autobiographical look at his politicized past, director Gerard Mordillat focuses on the ironic, the wistful, and the sometimes ludicrous events that spin off from the Communist/anarchist upbringing of his main character, Maurice Decques (François Cluzet). Maurice's tendency to swing over to the bourgeosie in his adult career as a caterer to social gatherings of varying stature is also reflected in the woman he marries - a Czech whose family chose Paris over Moscow "because the USSR has concentration camps" as she told her shocked Communist father-in-law. When Maurice is caught in the 1968 student demonstrations in Paris, the officer who hauls him off is soon recognized as an old childhood buddy, and instead of heading to jail, the policeman/friend takes Maurice home. As the police van drives out of view, the two buddies are seen as young kids, sitting on the hood of a car and dreaming about the future. These flashbacks to his childhood occur throughout the film, with Maurice sometimes walking into and out of the scenes, as though there were no gap in time at all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- François Cluzet, Robin Renucci, (more)
- 1982
Based on a mystery novel by Leo Malet, lead character Detective Burma (comic Michel Serrault) has luxurious office digs - shared with his oddball cat - but he himself is neither as sophisticated or as quick-witted as Malet's literary creation. Director Jean-Luc Miesch (29 years old), has missed that aspect of Malet's detective in his own interpretation of a zany, off-the-wall Nestor Burma. Burma's newest case involves corruption in the drug-dealing underworld of the punk rockers, especially rock star Boc Craddock (played by Alain Bashung, the French rock singer). In order to go undercover to obtain information, Burma has to impersonate an over-the-hill punk rock enthusiast, with just enough absurdity to sparkle in contrast with the rest of the action. If his ploy works and the fates are with him, perhaps he will solve his case after all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Jane Birkin, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.