Audrey Tautou - 10 Most Charmingly Cute French Films

Audrey Tautou is a french film "Sweetheart" actress who has done around 35 films in her enchanting career. She is well known for her scintillating performance in Amelie (2001), A Very Long Engagement (2004) and Venus Beauty Institute (1999). Audrey Tautou's films can be romantic, groundbreaking, sexy, fearless and fun. 

Her films are also famed for being poetic and philosophical on the subjects of love and desire. Her range of facial expressions alone is joyful to watch and ability to own the screen is simply a pleasure to watch. 

Whether she is sad, happy, shocked or even random, Audrey can seamlessly connect with the audience at its very core. 

10. Happenstance (2000)

  ***A Wonderful Film On A Chaotic Plot***

"The Destiny Man: You see, every detail, every gesture, as slight as it may be, reveals an infinity of truths and thus has an endless repercussion and grandiose effects."

"Happenstance" story concerns a young woman, Irene (Audrey Tautou) who is told, by a fellow commuter on a train, that she will meet her true love on that day. This occurs in the first few minutes of the film. The clever irony at this point is that Irene doesn't realize that the young man opposite (Gilbert Robin) may be that 'one true love'. And, nor does he...

We get to see a different side of Audrey Tautou's spectrum than the naive, wide-eyed dreamer we're familiar with... Here, she's a bit cynical, certainly a realist, and at times, rather self-centered. Her eyes and head hang a little low, and the pixie we watched in Amelie practically disappear.

9. Hunting and Gathering (2007)

***Thoroughly Enjoyable, Hunting And Gathering***

"Love might be closer than you think." 

It begins in a quite French comedy way. It's the cleaning girl who lives under the roof, the extremely nerdy young Parisian aristocrat and the young soft macho chef aspirant. They come together and it could have been both entertaining and thought inspiring. The narrative is quite plain actually, with every conceivable development being very predictable. That means no quirky twists and turns for the sake of it, and it actually allows you to shift to lower gears to enjoy this outing.

This is a great romantic fable, hugely fun, and should appeal to anyone who wants a thoughtful yet enjoyable trip to the cinema.

8. Coco Before Chanel (2009) 

***Absorbing, Elegant And Powerful Work***

"Étienne Balsan: A woman who cuts her hair, is about to change her life."

"Coco Avant Chanel" presents a different set of problems for the reviewer. The performances are very well done, especially Andrey Tautou's performance in the lead role of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the unorthodox and somewhat cold fashion designer whose uncompromising vision brought dramatic changes to women's fashion. The E original character didn't have the interesting ups and downs and emotional breakdowns to provide that depth but otherwise, this is a great, well-made biopic that can be appreciated by an audience far wider than those purely interested in Chanel, the brand or her legacy.

7. Beautiful Lies (2010)

***Quite Underrated, Refreshingly Heart Warming Film***

"Sometimes a little white lie can change everything."

Tautou plays Emilie , an owner of a beauty salon who receives a hand written love letter from a shy handyman. She dismisses the passionate letter at first, but when she realizes that her mother is still distraught over the betrayal of her father, she decides to resend the letter to cheer the upset woman up. What follows is a series of misunderstandings and an awkward love triangle involving a man caught between two women who are mother and daughter. As an outwardly harsh businesswoman plagued by loneliness, fear and insecurity, Tautou is excellent. Jean is buffeted around by lies in a way that's more bleak than funny.

6. He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not (2002)

***Immensely Likable, If You Are Crazy About Audrey***

"Every love story has two sides."

"Is she crazy in love, or just crazy?"

Audrey Tautou displays depth in her portrayal of a young woman who is struggling to keep her relationship with a married doctor. The first half of the movie is shown from her character's point of view. Then the director made an interesting choice as to cinematically "Rewind" the film to the beginning to show the movie from the perspective of the doctor.

Tautou does a brilliant job of using her cute reputation to surprise us she becomes more extreme and slowly wrecks her life. The film as a complete piece of work more than overcomes any such minor shortcomings. Take it for what it is and the film will reward, that's an enjoyable and sometimes shocking work, designed to entertain and engage in some vaguely thought-provoking levels.

5. Venus Beauty Institute (1999)

***A Fantastic Film With Simple Story And Performance***

"Angele: When you smile I find you handsome.

Jacques: That's because you know my soul."

This story revolves around the employees of a beauty shop in Paris. It's not quite an ensemble piece because there is a main character. Nathalie Baye plays a 40-year-old woman, Angele, who is going from one feeling to another. Angele doesn't believe in love anymore.  Audrey Tautou plays Marie, another worker at the salon, and she's a plain country girl who starts having an affair with a much older man. Mathilde Seigner plays Samantha, who is tough on the outside and has lots of boyfriends, but is hurting inside.

While the story is mainly a romantic comedy, there is some drama. The story does a good job of keeping the comedy and serious drama from running into conflict with each other. And unusual for a comedy, the story doesn't stray from plausibility for the sake of humor, but the comedy is still strong.

4. Priceless (2006)

***Ravishing, You Will Fall In Love With Audrey's Role***

"Irene: But charm is more valuable than beauty. You can resist beauty, but you can't resist charm." 

Tautou Is living like a high profile gold digger looking for a rich person Marry and she is sleeping with any person for expensive gifts and Clothes. A waiter funnily falls in love with her and since he cannot Afford her lifestyle, he quits his job, finds a rich old woman Supporting him in exchange of being together with her. Audrey As Irene is charmingly sexy and beautiful. The chemistry between Tautou's character Irene and Elmaleh's Jean is perfect. They just go With each others flow and doesn't upstage one another. It is hugely Enjoyable and utterly charming.

3. Dirty Pretty Things (2002)  

  ***A Well Crafted Social Drama And Impressive Work From All***

"The Doctor: How come I've never seen you people before?

Okwe: Because we are the people you do not see. We are the ones who drive your cabs. We clean your rooms."

"Dirty Pretty Things", tells the story of Night Hotel manager Okwe. Showing how he unsuccessfully juggles working all day and night the film begins as a drama, but soon changes gears. A slow burning relationship with maid Senay, a Turkish immigrant, combines with a gruesome discovery of a human heart in the lavatory. It's not a thriller in the traditional sense. There are no big action or unrealistic twists. Instead, it uncovers a human tragedy that is more devastating and complex than most thrillers approach.

Audrey Tautou was surprisingly believable as a Muslim Turk. Although she has appeared in several films recently, she doesn't seem to have been burnt and probably avoided being typecast in her fabulous Amelie.

2. A Very Long Engagement (2004)

***Wonderful Cinematography And A Beautifully Portrayed Film***

"Mathilde: If I don't break the peel, Manech is alive."

"Narrator: Mathilde leans back against her chair, folds her hands in her lap, and looks at him. In the sweetness of the air, in the light of the garden, Mathilde looks at him. She looks at him... She looks at him..."

"A Very Long Engagement", a youthful and hopeless romantic played by Audrey Tautou who anxiously awaits the return of her fiance from war. Two years after the death notice arrived she maintains hope that her childhood sweetheart, Manech , disappearance. She encounters a myriad of wounded soldiers as well as the wives and lovers of Manech's comrades. As the mystery is alive. Mathilde sets out on a quest to unearth the details of her supposedly dead fiance's sudden unfolds the question is constantly restated, "Well is he alive or isn't he?"

Marked by beautiful cinematography and a poetic script, A Very Long Engagement is a finely crafted masterpiece. The movie has another Jeunet's feature: comedy. There good scenes with hilarious situations and as the same way he did in Amelie, he combined perfectly drama, intrigue and comedy. I recommend to everyone to watch this film and have a good time.

1. Amelie (2001)

  ***Cute, Innocence, And A Delightful French Film Ever***

"Amelie: It's better to help people than garden gnomes."

"Narrator: On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugène Colère erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amelie Poulain was born."

Audrey Tautou is perfect as the angel faced Amelie who is a somewhat oddball and takes delight in the small things in life - putting her hand in a sack of grain or skimming stones on the water. She decides to turn people's lives for the better and ends up doing things such as matchmaking her colleague with a broken hearted stalker, punishing the nasty fruit and vegetable store owner for mistreating an employee and at the same time, falls in love with a guy who is almost as weird in her in terms of his pastimes.

Amelie is a wonderful movie. It is so refreshingly different from so many other French movies. Amelie barely speaks throughout the whole movie, and yet the viewer feels her every emotion and always knows exactly what she is thinking. She is quirky and fun, and this movie is great for anyone who has ever had trouble communicating with the outside world. It's just plain and simply great to watch and ponder on the fine and lovely world of Amelie.

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