Dix pour cent — Blog

On twitter a while back, Erin Biba commented about how it would be nice if someone had a list of who the guest stars in Call My Agent are and what films we should watch. Erin is a great science journalist and spent college studying and learning useful valuable things, while I was watching a lot of movies and reading novels, so it’s that rare moment where I can actually offer something.

Well, I made a few suggestions for Cecile de France, who goes starred in the very first episode, and as it’s good idea and it gives me the chance to show off and tell people what foreign movies they should watch, I decided to give it a try.

Before we begin. Ground rules: there are none. I didn’t watch any movies in order to make this list and sound smart (I don’t have that kind of time). Also, if you take me up and decide to watch one of these films and hate it, I’m not responsible.

Season One

Episode 1: Cecile de France.

I love Cecile de France. She starred in the great character ensemble Avenue Montaigne, which is a delight. (writer-director Daniele Thompson is an underrated talent, in my book). She’s been in some great dramatic films like A Secret and Mesrine. She was also part of Cedric Klapisch’s great ensemble cast (with Audrey Tatou, Romain Duris, Kelly Reilly, Judith Godréche and others) in a series of films that began with L’Auberge Espagnole and continued in Russian Dolls and Chinese Puzzle, which starts in college and follows them afterwards as they grow and change in different and surprising ways.

Episode 2: Line Renaud and Françoise Fabian.

Renaud has acted, but to my knowledge she’s primarily been a singer. Fabian has been in some classic French films including Belle de Jour and the Eric Rohmer film My Night at Maud’s (she played Maud). More recently she was in François Ozon’s 5x2, and she played the mother in Daniele Thompson’s great dysfunctional family Christmas movie La Bûche. (I enjoy dysfunctional family holiday movies and that is imho one of the best).

Also worth mentioning that Renaud has been an AIDS activist for nearly four decades and Fabian was one of the 343!

Episode 3: Nathalie Baye, Laura Smet, Gilles Lellouche, Zinedine Soualem.

Baye is a cinematic icon. She was in The Return of Martin Guerre (which I would argue is one of the all time great films, and one of the iconic French films). If you haven’t seen it, well, you’ll see that it’s been ripped off a lot over the years, but I think it still holds up. She was also in the Truffaut classic Day for Night, and Tell No One, which is a great thriller I highly recommend to everyone. (For people who don’t know, the French love thrillers, have made some truly great ones, and I’ll put Tell No One on a list of notable recent ones)

Smet is Baye’s real life daughter (with Johnny Hallyday, who is kinda the French Elvis, which makes Smet European royalty in my book - I mean, really, what have the Hapsburgs done for anyone this century?). She’s been in a few very good films including The Bridesmaid (directed by Claude Chabrol based on the Ruth Rendell thriller), and 2014’s Eden by Mia Hansen-Løve, which I especially love.

Lellouche starred in My Piece of the Pie from director Cédric Klapisch, and he was a supporting character in a lot of great films including Tell No One, Paris, Mesrine, Little White Lies.

Soualem looked familiar but didn’t ring any bells, so I looked up his filmography, which is impressive. He’s a regular collaborator of Cedric Klapisch and has worked with Raoul Peck and Julian Schnabel, Costa-Gavras and Michel Gondry. So I feel a little bad for not recognizing him, though he seems like a character actor.

Episode 4: Audrey Fleurot.

Likely best known for the film The Intouchables, which was a massive sensation, and I’ll admit I’m lukewarm towards the film, but the actors make it a must see. Fleurot also starred in two good French TV series, Spiral, about lawyers and cops where she plays a cynical but brilliant lawyer, and Un village français (A French Village) about a town under German occupation during the Second World War.

Episode 5: Julie Gayet, Joeystarr, Zinedine Soualem.

The only film I know Gayet for is My Best Friend, which is a fine 2006 Patrice Leconte film.

Joeystarr I don’t know at all. Soualem, I mentioned in Episode 3.

Episode 6: François Berléand.

People might recognize him from his roles in The Transporter films, but he’s worked with a lot of great filmmakers including Louis Malle (May Fools, Au revoir les enfants), Claude Chabrol (Comedy of Power), and Catherine Breillat (Romance). He was in 2004’s The Chorus, which was fabulous, Tell No One, which I mentioned before. I don’t know if he can swim or not, which is what the episode hinges on, but he can do just about anything else.

Season Two

Episode 1: Virginie Efira, Ramzy Bedia

Efria is best known to me (and everyone, I think) for her role in Paul Verhoeven’s 2016 film Elle and for her collaborations with the talented French filmmaker Justine Triet (Sibyl, In Bed with Victoria).

Bedia I don’t know.

Episode 2: Fabrice Luchini and Christophe Lambert

Because I am a guy of a certain age, it is impossible for me not to think of Lambert as Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. (Yes, I can talk about the film and his performance for an embarrassingly long length of time…though I like to think I would be able to restrain myself if I ever met him in person). But besides Highlander and a vast number of other English language productions he’s also been in some great French films like Claire Denis’ White Material (with Isabelle Huppert) and Luc Besson’s Subway.

Luchini has been in films like Paris, a great ensemble film I loved, Moliere, a fictional film about the playwright. He also played Julius Caesar in one of the Asterix and Obelix films.

Episode 3: Julien Doré, Norman Thavaud, Aymeline Valade

Doré is mostly a musician. Thavaud is mostly a YouTuber. Valade is a model. I don’t know much of anything about any of them.

Episode 4: Isabelle Adjani and Julien Doré.

Isabelle Adjani has been in movies like Possession, Camille Claudel, The Story of Adele H, Quartet, Nosferatu. She was also in Queen Margot, a 1994 film based on the Dumas novel about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which was highly acclaimed (and won her the Cesar Award for Best Actress), but I found boring. She was also in Ishtar, which is in English I know, and it was loathed by many, but which I liked. (Though admittedly if I was casting a North African revolutionary in a film, she wouldn’t be on the list) So, no accounting for taste.

Episode 5: Guy Marchand

I know Marchand for his role in Diane Kurys’ film Entre Nous. I know that he also played Nestor Burma in a long running series adapting the detective novels of Leo Malet. I’ve never seen the show, but I like Burma, so it’s on my list if I can find it somewhere.

Episode 6: Juliette Binoche

Binoche is one of the world’s greatest living actors. She’s been in some iconic English language films (The English Patient, The Unbearable Lightness of Being). There are many French films that jump to mind. Summer Hours, which I think is genius and this small intimate and perfect movie about a family that is not a tragedy but just emotional and thoughtful. Paris, which is a great ensemble film. Flight of the Red Balloon. Camille Claudel 1915. Clouds of Sils Maria. Let the Sunshine In. Three Colors: Blue. The Horseman on the Roof. High Life. I know I’m forgetting so many films and so many good ones, but that’s a start.

Binoche also starred in the French comedy Telle mére, telle fills (Baby Bumps), with Call Your Agent star Camille Cottin. But I have not seen it.

Season Three

Episode 1: Jean Dujardin

People love The Artist. Well, people not me, at least. I do recommend his two OSS 117 films, which are entertaining spoofs of sixties spy movies. (Though if you hate old spy movies…)

Episode 2: Monica Bellucci

People know her for her English language films like The Matrix sequels and Spectre, and well, one of the most beautiful people in the world. But as far as foreign language films, there’s Malena, which is technically Italian, but it’s a Romance language. (You need subtitles to watch it! What do you care!) There’s Brotherhood of the Wolf if you want a crazy 17th century action adventure film. She played Cleopatra in one of the Asterix and Obelix films. There was Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, which was honestly one of the most painfully depressing and bleak movies I’ve ever seen. So no shame if you never watch it. Le deuxiéme soufflé and A Burning Hot Summer is good, too.

Episode 3: Gérard Lanvin and Guy Marchand

Lanvin is best known for his award-winning performance in The Taste of Others.

Marchand I wrote about earlier in Season 2.

Episode 4: Isabelle Huppert

Huppert is one of the great living actors and one of those performers who can do almost anything. I still regret that I wasn’t able to see her on stage a few years ago. But in her film career she’s done a lot of intense powerful projects like Entre Nous, La Ceremonie, The Piano Teacher, Ma Mere, White Material, Things To Come, Elle. She’s just one of those actors who is always great but there isn’t a typical performance or style or approach that she seems to have. Just a wonder to watch her.

Episode 5: Béatrice Dalle

She’s been in films like Night on Earth, but as far as her French films, best start with Clean by Olivier Assayas. (Every Assayas film is worth watching). She’s collaborated with the great director Calire Denis a few times (I Can’t Sleep, Trouble Every Day, The Intruder). Also, Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf.

Episode 6: Claude Lelouch

There’s a an all star cast of guest stars in this episode, but except for one, they’ve been in previous episodes. Lelouch is a director, and I’ll admit that I’m not that familiar with him and didn’t know he was still alive (but he is! And he’s still working in his 80s!). But his 1966 film A Man and A Woman I remember making an impression on me years ago, as did his film Les Miserables, which is not an adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. But it does start with the novel and someone reading it and, well it’s hard to explain, but I do recommend it.

Season Four

Episode 1: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mimie Mathy

I mentioned earlier that I consider Laura Smet to be European royalty? I believe the same of actor and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is the daughter of the late musician Serge Gainsbourg and actor/director/ handbag designer/all around icon Jane Birkin. A lot of people may know her for her English language films including the titular Jane Eyre in the 1996 Zeffrelli film opposite William Hurt as Rochester, 21 Grams, The Science of Sleep, I’m Not There, The City of Your Final Destination, and a series of collaborations with director Lars von Trier (Antichrist, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac). In France she’s been in films like La Buche (dysfunctional family Christmas movie). She’s worked with her partner Yvan Attal in films like My Wife is an Actress, Happily Ever After, Do Not Disturb, and The Jews.

Mathy, I’m forced to admit, I don’t know at all other than her appearance here.

Episode 2: Franck Dubosc

I don’t know Dubosc at all, I’m sorry to say.

Episode 3: José Garcia

He’s primarily a comedian and I can see that he does a lot of voice acting, but I don’t know any of his French films.

Episode 4: Sandrine Kiberlain

I know that Kiberlain has acted in many films but the only performance I know is that she played Simone de Beauvoir in the film Violette.

Episode 5: Sigourney Weaver

She’s an American who appeared on the British tv show Doc Martin. Has she done anything else? (I’m kidding)

Episode 6: Jean Reno

A regular collaborator with director Luc Besson, Reno starred in The Big Blue (my personal favorite Besson film) about a pair of free divers which is beautiful and poetic. The Crimson Rivers is a strange creepy thriller that is just great. I know there’s a sequel, but I have not seen it. I also recommend The Corsican File, which isn’t great but it’s entertaining and Reno and his presence are the star of the film.