Olivier Assayas Movies

Juliette Binoche teams with Lambert Wilson in this erotic drama. Binoche plays Nina, the young lady friend of timid Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak). Though she intends to be true to Paulot, Nina falls hard for his roommate, Quentin (Wilson), a thoroughly self-centered actor who performs in live sex shows. After a torrid affair with Nina, Quentin dies under questionable circumstances. Nina's search for answers to Quentin's sudden death leads her to Scrutzler (Jean-Louis Trintignant), the theater director who'd once cast Quentin in Romeo and Juliet. Scrutzler has likewise suffered a terrible loss in his life: his Juliet was also his wife, who also died unexpectedly. Apparently, it was the wife's death that led to Quentin's demise. On impulse, Scrutzler casts the inexperienced Nina as Juliet -- and before long, both unhappy souls find a common emotional ground. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After serving his apprenticeship as a screenwriter for director André Techiné, former movie critic Olivier Assayas wrote and directed this film. In the story, a penniless girl and two similarly impoverished boys with ambitions of becoming a successful rock group are sorely in need of some instruments to play on. They decide to break into a music store and manage to get their hands on the instruments they need -- killing the proprietor in the process. Though the police never catch up with them, something else waylays these "tough" kids -- their consciences. Despondent over the killing, one of the young men commits suicide. The others are then confronted with their own feelings about their crimes and each other and cannot easily give themselves over to their quest to become musicians. One of the film's musical highlights is a performance of the Woodentops. This teen drama won the critic's prize at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Scene of the Crime (Le Lieu du Crime) begins with a quote from Great Expectations. Thirteen-year-old Nicolas Giraudi, picking flowers in a cemetery, is surprised by escaped criminal Wadeck Stanczak, who orders the boy to bring him some money. Displaying no signs of fear, Giraudi does what he is told, and as a "reward" his life is spared by the convict. Later on, Stanczak gets stinking drunk at a road house managed by Giraudi's mother, Catherine Deneuve. Fascinated by Stanczak, Deneuve arranges for the fugitive to take a room at a local hotel. On the day that Giraudi is to receive his first communion, his mother plans to run off with Stanczak. The climactic set-to between criminals and police has the negatory effect of separating Giraudi from his mother; on a more positive note, however, the boy has been drawn closer to his father Victor Lanoux, whom Deneuve despised. The dreamlike, new wave-ish Scene of the Crime is a lot more complex than this skeletal synopsis would suggest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this French romantic drama, Stephane (Michel Feller) wants to form a romantic bond with Sabine (Clotilde de Bayser), and to do this has left his pregnant girlfriend behind. Sabine would rather be with Bruno (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) her former boyfriend, a stage actor. Bruno in turn is much more interested in his current girlfriend. Each person is, in his or her own way, attempting to deal with issues of maturity and responsibility and repeatedly fails to find happiness or even a decently tranquil compromise between their desires and the realities of their situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Tina (Sophie Aubry) is an unpleasant young woman with an unpleasantly supine mother and an unpleasantly futureless boyfriend. Even for someone whose range of facial expressions consists of mild-to-moderate sulking, this is too much, and she decides to look up the father she has never known. Along the way, she discovers that she has a half sister whom she has never met, a girl involved in an intense, abusive relationship with a married man: her father's lawyer. Tina eventually meets up with her father and discovers, naturally enough, that he is not a particularly nice man and furthermore wants nothing whatever to do with her. Somehow all these new people in Tina's life continue to be involved with each other, despite the resounding lack of joy they seem to feel in each other's company. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, L'Eau Froide is a romantic drama about young, rebellious love in 1972 Paris. Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) and Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet) are 16-year-old lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together. For her performance, Ledoyen was nominated for Most Promising Actress at the 1995 César Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien (City of Sadness) is among Taiwan's most influential late-20th-century filmmakers. This documentary from his friend and colleague Olivier Assayas offers an in-depth look at Hou's life and fascinating career as he and a camera crew follow the filmmaker through Taipei and into the countryside while he shows Assayas where he was raised. Taiwanese film critic Chen Kuo-Fu offers his insight into his country's cinema and Hou's place with in it. Film clips punctuate the conversations. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romantic French drama, auteur Andre Techine offers an intense, intimate look inside the complex relationship between two emotionally dysfunctional people. Neither Alice (Juliette Binoche) nor Martin (Alexis Loret) seem emotionally healthy enough to sustain a relationship, but somehow they manage to stay together amidst their many personal problems. The two met in Paris, where Martin fled after escaping the oppression of his recently deceased tyrannical father. Once in the City of Light, the depressed Martin attempts suicide and later accepts an offer to stay with his half-brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric) and his roommate Alice, a violinist, in their ramshackle garret. Shortly thereafter, Martin is spotted by a modeling agent and finds steady work on the city's catwalks. At first, Martin and Alice do not get along. He is brutish and incapable of expressing emotion. He pursues her, but Alice is not terribly interested, until her sexual frustration and need to be loved gets the better of her, and she succumbs to his advances. She then decides to leave Benjamin and travel with Martin to a modelling assignment in Granada, Spain. There the two are briefly happy, but as time passes, Martin's self-absorption increases. Alice's announcement that she is pregnant precipitates a crisis in which Martin reveals that he caused his father's death. Unable to bear the guilt and pain any longer, he commits himself to a mental institution and then requests he be given his day in court. Alice is convinced that Martin is innocent of the crime with which he has charged himself. When he insists on going to court, she goes there to save him from himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

French director Olivier Assayas departs from his usual dramas with Demonlover, a wild thriller about corporate intrigue, hardcore sex Internet sites, and Japanese animé. Wealthy French business man Henri-Pierre Volf (Jean-Baptise Malartre) assigns Diane de Monx (Connie Nielson) to make a deal with TokyoAnime, a company at the forefront of three-dimensional adult animation, after his former assistant, Karen (Dominique Reymond), is kidnapped. Diane, however, is actually a spy for a different company. Standing in her way is another headstrong business woman (Gina Gershon), and Diane's assistant, Elise Lipsky (Oscar nominee Chloe Sevigny) who questions her boss' morality. Demonlover was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris, Je T'Aime features 18 short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two segments were produced by two filmmakers in collaboration). In "Faubourg Saint-Denis," Tom Tykwer directs Natalie Portman as an American actress who is the object of affection for a blind student (Melchior Belson). Christopher Doyle's "Porte de Choisy" follows a salesman (Barbet Schroeder) as he tries to pitch beauty aids in Chinatown. Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier are father and daughter in "Parc Monceau" from Alfonso Cuarón. Animator Sylvain Chomet turns his eye to a pair of living, breathing mimes in "Tour Eiffel." An interracial romance in France is offered by Gurinder Chadha in "Quais de Seine." In "Le Marais" from Gus Van Sant, a man (Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself falling for a handsome gent (Elias McConnell) who works in a print shop. Isabel Coixet tells the tale of a man (Sergio Castellitto) who is making his final choice between his wife (Miranda Richardson) and his lover (Leonor Watling) in "Bastille." Juliette Binoche plays a grieving mother in Nobuhiro Suwa's "Place des Victoires," in which she's greeted by a spectral cowboy (Willem Dafoe). Richard LaGravanese's "Pigalle" finds a long-married man (Bob Hoskins) turning to a prostitute for advice on pleasing his wife (Fanny Ardant). Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin direct Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara as longtime marrieds meeting for one final pre-divorce encounter in "Quartier Latin." Steve Buscemi learns a lesson about local etiquette in the Paris Metro in "Tuileries" from Joel and Ethan Coen. In "Loin du 16ème" by Walter Salles, a housekeeper (Catalina Sandino Moreno) longs for her own child as she tends to the infant of her wealthy employer. Elijah Wood stars in "Quartier de la Madeleine," a vampire tale from Vincenzo Natali. Wes Craven presents another fantasy in "Père-Lachaise," in which an engaged young man (Rufus Sewell) receives romantic advice from the spirit of Oscar Wilde (Alex Payne). A postal worker from Colorado (Margo Martindale) shares her thoughts on her visit to Paris in mangled French in Alexander Payne's witty "14th Arrondissement." Other segments include "Place des Fêtes" from Oliver Schmitz, Bruno Podalydès' "Montmartre," and "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" by Olivier Assayas, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. Paris, Je T'Aime received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Olivier Assayas draws on the themes in his previous film Irma Vep for this short starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lionel Dray. The segment concerns a young drug addicted actress (Gyllenhaal) who senses a burgeoning romance with her dealer (Dray). This film was included in Paris, Je T'Aime, an ode to the legendary city featuring contributions from such directors as Wes Craven, Tom Tykwer, and Alfonso Cuarón. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

From director Olivier Assayas comes this erotic thriller starring Asia Argento as Sandra, a former prostitute, and Michael Madsen as Miles, her onetime pimp-turned-high-powered businessman. Brought back together after a separation, Sandra and Miles are reunited when Sandra returns to Paris after an extended absence. Despite the fact that neither of the two former lovers are the same people they were back in the day, their kinky sexual relationship is nonetheless rekindled. It seems that some time long ago, financial promises were made before some misdeed drove the pair apart. Meanwhile, Sandra has made it her mission to open a Beijing nightclub, and Miles is about to sell off his business to Singapore interests. Miles couldn't care less about Sandra's dreams of owning a nightclub, but now that his divorce has been finalized he's eager to resume their steamy relationship. Tempted by Miles' money but financially comfortable thanks to her work with an import company run by shady couple Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue Wang (Kelly Lin), Sandra secretly pulls down some extra income by moving drugs through the married couple's highly profitable company. Before long, sexual intrigue and a botched drug deal combine to complicate matters for all involved. Boarding Gate screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide