Leconte, Patrice

Girl on the Bridge

Daniel Auteuil and sexy Vanessa Paradis charm in this funny and intriguing twist on Boy Meets Girl. A beautiful waif (Paradis) is prepared to leap to her death in the Seine but is rescued from her grim fate by a raffish carnival knife thrower (Auteuil, in a performance that won him a Cesar Award for Best Actor). Lovely, quirky, winsome and erotic, this fairytale vision from director Patrice Leconte (Monsieur Hire) is a romance so captivating, you won't want it to end!

My Best Friend

Catherine (Gayet) refuses to believe that her business partner the unlikeable Fran ois (Auteuil) has a best friend so she challenges him to set up an introduction. Scrambling to find someone willing to pose as his best pal Fran ois enlists the services of a charming taxi driver (Boon) to play the part.System Requirements:Run Time: 95 minutes Genre: COMEDY UPC: 796019805391 Manufacturer No: 80539

Ridicule

In Patrice Leconte's cool, precise moral comedy Ridicule, the corrupt, sycophantic court of King Louis XVI is invaded by a provincial nobleman, Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), who with the help of his own sharp tongue, the coaching of the retired courtier Marquis de Bellegarde (Jean Rochefort), and the love of the Marquis's beautiful, nature-loving daughter (Judith Godrèche) hopes to win funds for his project to drain the fever-infested swamps of his homeland. But first he has to get by the cunning, sexually manipulative Madame de Blayac (Fanny Ardant, imperious and superb) and her waspish, priestly ally, the Abbot de Vilecourt (Bernard Giraudeau).

As shaped by screenwriter Rémi Waterhouse, Ridicule is a kind of dashing verbal swashbuckler in which duels aren't fought with swords, but with the equally fatal weapon of words--rapier wit in its most literal sense. Laconte directs with an appealing elegance and a scathing sobriety as he unfolds a fable that could just as easily take place in a Wall Street boardroom, a Park Avenue executive suite, or a Hollywood commissary. --Dave Kehr

Nominated for an Academy Award(R) (Best Foreign Language Film, 1996) and honored by critics as one of the year's 10 best motion pictures, RIDICULE is an exceptionally entertaining tale of passion and deceit! In a desperate quest to save his hometown, a young man quickly learns that a sharp wit is the key to open any door in the Versailles court of Louis XVI! But his mission is complicated when he finds himself locked in a dangerous triangle with two very seductive ladies: a sophisticated older woman who can help him ... and an innocent young beauty with nothing to offer but her love! Wickedly funny humor and outstanding performances highlight this must-see triumph!

Intimate Strangers

The Widow of Saint-Pierre

Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train)

You wouldn't think a movie that's mostly two old guys talking could be a thriller, but that's exactly what Man on the Train is. French singer Johnny Hallyday plays a professional criminal who comes to a small town to take part in a robbery. By chance, he meets talkative Jean Rochefort (The Hairdresser's Husband), who invites the laconic Hallyday to stay at his house because the hotel is closed. The two form an unlikely friendship, each curious about (and envious of) the other's life. But all the while plans for the robbery continue, while Rochefort is preparing for a dangerous event of his own. The pitch-perfect performances make Man on the Train completely involving. Rochefort and Hallyday play off of each other beautifully; it's impossible to put your finger on what makes these subtle, supple scenes so magnetic. Directed with spare authority by Patrice Leconte (Ridicule). --Bret Fetzer

Patrice Leconte's (Girl on the Bridge) MAN ON THE TRAIN tells the touching story of two men from different walks of life as they develop an unexpected friendship and change each other's view of life at the last possible moment. Milan (Hallyday), a thief, steps off the train in a small town in the French Alps where he plans to rob a local bank. By chance, after he is unable to find a room for the night, he encounters Manesquier (Rochefort), a retired poetry teacher whose sedentary lifestyle bores even himself. Sharing nothing in common except important plans for the weekend - one is to rob a bank and the other is to go in for open-heart surgery - the two men begin talking and soon develop a respect for one another, as well as a secret longing to live the type of lifestyle the other lives. And, as the friendship grows even stronger, each man defies his personality to explore his yearning for the life of the other.

Monsieur Hire (Ws Sub)

Touching, lyrical, erotic, suspenseful and enigmatic, Patrice Leconte s (Girl on the Bridge) 1989 psychological drama Monsieur Hire is both a twisted love story and a tragic thriller (London Sunday Times). In a provincial French apartment block, Monsieur Hire (Michel Blanc) endures a solitary life of dulling work as a tailor and vitriolic scorn from his neighbors. Hire s only solace is an occasional night out bowling and the voyeuristic admiration of his neighbor, the ravishingly erotic (Entertainment Weekly) Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire Vagabond, À Nos Amours), a beautiful, free-spirited woman conducting a heated love affair through un-drawn curtains across the way. But when police discover the nude body of another young woman in a nearby vacant lot, Hire becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation that brings him face to face with the object of his desire even as it threatens to ensnare them both in a web of deceit, accusation, lust, and guilt. Adapted from the book by celebrated Belgian crime novelist Georges Simenon, Monsieur Hire is a film of gorgeously muted widescreen color and funereal beauty (The Washington Post) that coolly unpacks sexual obsession and romantic love with an intelligence and understated intensity so delicate that you almost hold your breath for the last half-hour (Roger Ebert).

Lumiere & Company

Some of the world's leading directors (David Lynch, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Zhang Yimou, John Boorman) use the original Lumiere picture camera to create short films all over the world. Interactive Menus, Production Notes, Scene access, Trailer, Languages: French, Subtitles: English

Le Mari de la coiffeuse [Region 2]

The Girl on the Bridge [Region 2]