Lou Castel Filmography

Medea Miracle

Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Tommaso Ragno, Giulietta de Bernardi, Lou Castel, Isabel Ruth

Synopsis: Director Tonino de Bernardi reworks the tragic myth of Medea into a passionate tale of a nightclub singer abandoned by her husband and forced to care for their two children alone. Irene (Isabelle Huppert) left her homeland in pursuit of Jason, the love of her life. Now Irene is a stranger in a Read More

El Cantor

Actors: Lou Castel, Luis Rego, Francoise Michaud, Talila, Rosette

Synopsis: Intentionally or unintentionally molded after the eccentric deadpan comedies of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki, the quirky slice-of-life feature El Cantor unfolds amid the day-to-day of western European Jews. William (Luis Rego), a dentist living in the French port city of Le Havre, receives a Read More

Etoile Violette

Actors: Lou Castel, Serge Bozon

Tiresia

Actors: Clara Choveaux, Thiago Teles, Laurent Lucas, Celia Catalifo

Synopsis: Director Bertrand Bonello adapts the Greek myth of Tiresias to a modern day setting with this unforgiving tale of a transsexual prostitute held captive by a man obsessed with her ethereal beauty. Bound in her lonely prison and deprived of the hormones that keep her from reverting back to manhood Read More

Bungalow

Actors: Lennie Burmeister, Trine Dyrholm, Devid Striesow, Nicole Glaeser, Jorg Malchow

Synopsis: German director Ulrich Köhler made his feature debut with Bungalow. Pro skateboarder Lennie Burmeister stars in his first film role as Paul, a disaffected teen who lets his ennui carry him out of the army. He goes AWOL out of boredom, it seems, and goes to his family's bungalow in the country. Read More

Clement

Actors: Olivier Guéritée, Emmanuelle Bercot, Remi Martin, Lou Castel

Synopsis: A boy in his early teens develops a crush on a grown woman old enough to be his mother, only to discover she is also attracted to him, in this controversial drama from France. Marion (Emmanuelle Bercot) is a headstrong and free-spirited woman in her early thirties who heads to the seacoast for a Read More

Appassionate

Actors: Anna Bonaiuto, Inês de Medeiros, Iaia Forte, Galatea Ranzi, Isabel Ruth

Synopsis: This musical drama (most of the dialogue is sung) concerns a diverse group of people brought together in a city in Italy. Pina (Isabel Ruth) was born in Portugal but now lives in poor circumstances in Naples. Pina has two daughters, Rosa (Iaia Forte), who has been wearing a wedding dress since she Read More

Louise (Take 2)

Actors: Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Gerald Thomassin, Antoine de Merle, Bruce Myers

Synopsis: Siegfried made his directorial debut with this French drama. In addition to directing and scripting, the multi-talented twentysomething Siegfried composed the film's jazzy, uptempo music score and also shared the camerawork (with Vincent Buron and Herve Lode) that features handheld scenes tracking Read More

Petites

Actors: Magalie Woch, Ingrid Molinier, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Camille Rousselet, Jean-Luc Bideau

Synopsis: Following the international success of her first film Oblie-moi (1994) for which she was also the co-writer, Noémi Lvovsky has concentrated mostly on screenwriting until Petites, a "buddy film" for girls. Emilie, Stella, Ines and Marion come from different social backgrounds but share the same Read More

Sinon, Oui

Actors: Catherine Mendez, Emmanuel Clarke, Lou Castel

Synopsis: Based on a true story this emotionally wrenching character study focuses upon a desperate young wife who feigns an entire pregnancy in hopes of convincing her dissatisfied husband to remain with her. Magali's problem comes from the fact that she is so bland and unassuming as to be nearly Read More

Irma Vep

Actors: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard, Antoine Basler

Synopsis: Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep tells the story of has-been French filmmaker René Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud). In an attempt to reinvigorate his career, Vidal decides to remake Les Vampires, the classic silent serial featuring the adventures of jewel thief Irma Vep. Playing Read More

Encore

Actors: Jackie Berroyer, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Natacha Régnier, Laurence Côte

Synopsis: The mid-life crisis of a middle-aged, depressive college professor/author provides the center of this French character study. Abel Vichac has really let himself go. Though a successful writer, and supposedly working on a book about 'regret,' he is barely functioning. He can't sleep at night. Read More

Three Lives and Only One Death

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Galiena, Marisa Paredes, Melvil Poupaud

Synopsis: Marcello Mastroianni plays several different roles in this off-beat, witty exploration of a man with multiple personalities from world-class filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Mastroianni first appears as Parisian traveling salesman Mateo Strano who suddenly shows up at the home of Maria, the wife he abandoned Read More

L'Ile Au Trésor

Actors: Melvil Poupaud, Martin Landau, Vic Tayback, Lou Castel, Jeffrey Kime

Synopsis: Jonathan (Melvil Poupaud) is an imaginative young man. This film unveils what goes on in his mind as he mulls over his recent reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island and the television adventure shows he is watching. This story device allows the highly regarded and very Read More

À Naissance De L'Amour

La Naissance de L'Amour

Actors: Lou Castel, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Johanna ter Steege, Dominique Reymond, Marie-Paul Laval

Synopsis: Middle-aged artistes provide the focus of this drama filmed in black and white. The story is set in Paris around the time of the Gulf War. Paul is an actor leading a drab directionless existence. He has an affair with Ulrika, a woman half his age. His wife, with whom he constantly argues, is Read More

Manila Paloma Blanca

Actors: Lou Castel, Barbara Valmorin

Synopsis: Carlo (Carlo Colnaghi) is down on his luck. Actually, he's been down on his luck for a long time. He's an actor who hasn't worked in decades, in part because his mental state is so volatile that he gets put into psychiatric institutions on a fairly regular basis. All the same, he longs to get back Read More

In the Name of the Father

Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave

Synopsis: The My Left Foot team of star Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan were reunited to make this political docudrama about Irish citizen Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis), who was wrongly convicted of taking part in an IRA bombing that killed five in Guildford, England in 1974. After a brutal Read More

Assolto Per Aver Commesso Il Fatto

Actors: Alberto Sordi

Synopsis: Emilio Garrone (Alberto Sordi) used to be a government functionary who supervised the leasing of broadcasting rights for the Italian government, but now he is retired. In this comedy, through a series of well-played scams, he winds up not only with the exclusive ownership of all broadcasting Read More

Dall'Altra Parte Del Mondo

Actors: Massimo Girotti, Marina Berti

Synopsis: In the salad days of his youth, Aureliano lived and worked in Africa, and the romance and exotic quality of those days remains with him still. These days, he lives a predictable existence, fending off the efforts of his female friend and former lover from those days to infuse some zest into his Read More

Year of the Gun

Actors: Andrew McCarthy, Valeria Golino, Sharon Stone, John Pankow, Mattia Sbragia

Synopsis: In this thriller, American novelist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade's terrorist plan to kidnap Italian Premier Aldo Moro during a research trip to Rome. As the terrorists attempt to kill David, he and his photojournalist friend (Sharon Stone) Read More

Fuga Dal Paradiso

Actors: Fabrice Josso, Ines Sastre, Horst Buchholz, Aurore Clément, Jacques Perrin

Synopsis: In this post-apocalpytic adventure story, narrated by Van Johnson), Teo (Fabrice Josso) lives underground in a cave with his father, who is a member of a ruling clan. Except for people within a family, all contacts between citizens are supposed to be electronic. However, Teo manages to contact and Read More

Che ora è?

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Massimo Troisi, Anne Parillaud, Renato Moretti, Lou Castel

Synopsis: Marcello (Marcello Mastroiano) has worked hard all his life to achieve a certain standing and success as a lawyer in Rome. He is pleased to be able to offer the fruits of his success to his son Michele (Massimo Troisi), and is perplexed and distressed that his unambitious son has no interest in Read More

Rorret

Actors: Lou Castel, Anna Galiena, Massimo Venturiello, Enrica Rosso, Rossana Coggiola

Synopsis: The Italian Rorret was directed by Fulvio Wetzl, a man who (to lapse into the vernacular) "knows from movies." Lou Castel plays the owner of a revival theatre, specializing in Hollywood thrillers of the 1940s. Castel is also mad as a hatter: he spends his off-hours murdering people he doesn't Read More

Man on Fire

Actors: Scott Glenn, Jade Malle, Brooke Adams, Danny Aiello, Joe Pesci, Paul Shenar

Synopsis: An agent newly retired from the CIA (Scott Glenn) agrees to become an Italian businessman's bodyguard in this adventure film. Things fall apart though, when terrorists kidnap the Italian's daughter and the agent must rescue her. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Hotel Du Paradis

Actors: Fernando Rey, Fabrice Luchini, Hugues Quester, Marika Rivera

Synopsis: A diverse group of guests gather in a small hotel in Paris to contemplate the state of their lives in this pretentious drama. Joseph Goldman (Fernando Rey) is a washed-up Hollywood actor making a living in the dinner-theater circuit. Accompanied by his wife Sarah (Carola Regnier), Goldman meets Read More

Campo Europa

Actors: Lou Castel

Synopsis: This surreal, amateur, and confusing story laden with puzzling symbolism depicts the turbulent psyche of a young woman on an escapist vacation and her relationship with an Italian writer hitting a low point in his career. When the already fragile woman hears that her brother has died, she is Read More

L'Amour à Mort

Actors: Sabine Azéma, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, Jean Dasté

Synopsis: Acclaimed French director Alain Resnais, winner of many international film awards for his ground-breaking creativity (Hiroshima, Mon Amour, L'Année Dernière à Marienbad), follows up his successful La Vie Est Un Roman with this continuing saga of love and death. This time, two principal actors from La Vie.. Read More

Der Beginn Aller Schrecken Ist Liebe

Actors: Helke Sander, Lou Castel, Rebecca Pauly, Monika Bleibtreu

Synopsis: The unfortunate Traugot (Lou Castel) suddenly finds himself sandwiched between his former lover Freya (director Helke Sander) and his new love Irmtraut (Rebecca Pauly), both women are good friends -- or were. Traugot waffles between the two women and ultimately, seems to want both, why not. Freya Read More

Elle a Passe Tant d'Heures Sous les Sunlights

Actors: Mireille Perrier, Jacques Bonnaffé, Anne Wiazemsky, Lou Castel

Synopsis: Too many hours under the sun, artificial or not, might have warped this experimental work by Philippe Garrel. Ostensibly starting out as a movie about a young man and a woman whose relationship is coming apart, the story itself then comes apart. Soon director Garrel himself is in front of the Read More

Trauma

Actors: Birgit Doll, Lou Castel, Hanne Wieder, Janna Marangosoff

Synopsis: In this slightly garbled mystery story, Anna (Birgit Doll) works in a Munich detective agency as an assistant to Sam Schwarz (Armin Müller-Stahl) -- an inept private investigator and aspiring author -- and one day she decides to unravel a missing persons case herself. She travels to the Brittany Read More

Gli Occhi, la bocca

Actors: Lou Castel, Ángela Molina, Emmanuelle Riva, Michel Piccoli, Antonio Piovanelli

Synopsis: Giovanni (Lou Castel) comes home after his brother's suicide to encounter the same family problems that have been around for years: his mother is a religious fanatic now obsessed with her son's errant spirit, his older brother has a cold and uncaring relationship with his children and his wife Read More

Killer Nun

Actors: Anita Ekberg, Paola Morra, Alida Valli, Massimo Serato

Synopsis: Giulio Berruti's unusual cult horror film casts former sex symbol Anita Ekberg as Sister Gertrude, a nun working in a mental institution. Gertrude is clearly insane, and takes a great deal of morphine for her self-diagnosed cancer. She goes to town and picks up men, seduces a younger nun (Paola Read More

Italia Ultimo Atto

Porci Con Le Ali

Actors: Lou Castel, Susanna Javicoli

Synopsis: The endless philosophizing which often accompanies love between two college students is accurately recounted here, as are the erotic explorations of other students, including some lesbian and homosexual contacts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

Les Enfants Du Placard

Actors: Brigitte Fossey, Lou Castel, Georges Marchal, Jean Sorel, Isabelle Weingarten

Synopsis: Nicola (Lou Castel) bears the psychological scars of unbearable guilt. As a boy, he was given the job of looking after his mentally unstable mother and protecting her from herself. One day, he and his sister went instead into a large closet and enacted a childishly intensive "I dare you" bonding Read More

The American Friend

Actors: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain, Nicholas Ray

Synopsis: Wim Wenders' mines Dennis Hopper's real-life experience as a painter and collector in this existential take on the American gangster film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel featuring the notoriously sociopathic Tom Ripley. Hopper stars as the eponymous American, currently a middleman selling the Read More

Mr. Mean

Synopsis: With Fred Williamson as director and star of Mr. Mean, is there any question as to the identity of the title character? Williamson plays a former Cosa Nostra henchman who seeks greener pastures. Hiring himself out as a hit man, he immediately lands a job. His mission: wipe out his old boss. Filmed Read More

Violanta

Actors: Lucia Bosé, Lou Castel, Ingrid Caven, François Simon

Synopsis: Set in the 19th century, and based on the classic Swiss novel Die Richterin by C. F. Meyer, this film tells a story of ghosts, incest and murder in a mountain village. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

The Cassandra Crossing

Actors: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen

Synopsis: This bizarre entry into the disaster film genre concerns a group of hapless passengers aboard a transcontinental luxury train who are infected with a viral plague by a group of terrorists. Burt Lancaster plays military man Mackenzie, who wants to send the train across a rickety bridge so all the Read More

Caro Michele

Actors: Mariangela Melato, Delphine Seyrig, Aurore Clément, Marcella Michelangeli, Lou Castel

Synopsis: Michael is the younger son of a middle-class family, a strong-willed and free-thinking fellow, who is off in some distant country fighting for a revolutionary cause. Everyone in the family writes to him, describing the events of their lives, as they drift into a kind of conventionality which would Read More

Cambio de Sexo

Actors: Victoria Abril

Synopsis: Themes long forbidden in Spain under the Franco dictatorship began to be explored in the years just following his demise. In this 1976 film, an unhappy and very effeminate man (played by a woman, Victoria Abril), experiences one difficulty after another. As a boy in Cataluña, his father attempts Read More

Nada

Actors: Fabio Testi, Maurice Garrel, Mariangela Melato, Michel Duchaussoy, Michel Aumont

Synopsis: Also known as Nada, The Nada Gang is a lesser effort from director Claude Chabrol. A group of European terrorists calling themselves the Nada kidnaps an American ambassador. Their hideout is besieged by a sadistic police official and his minions. Thanks to the official's eagerness to pull the Read More

Gangsterfilmen

Actors: Per Oscarsson

Synopsis: An American gangster of Swedish origins returns to his homeland to set up shop as a morality crusader, much in the manner of the later phenomenon of televangelists. While indulging in behind-the-scene shenanigans including rape and murder, the gangster (played by American Clu Gulagher) preaches to Read More

Voyage En Grande Tartarie

Actors: Jean-Luc Bideau, Micheline Lanctôt, Lou Castel, Catherline Laborde

Synopsis: Unhinged by the murder of his wife by a madman dressed as a cowboy, Alexis (Jean-Luc Bideau) hops into his car and lays himself wide open for a number of adventures; some of them are heavenly, but most of them are harrowing in the extreme. Along the way he meets a suicidal emigre (Micheline Lanctot Read More

Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe

Actors: Senta Berger, Lou Castel

Synopsis: Wim Wenders' The Scarlet Letter (German title: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe) may well be the most fascinating of the many screen versions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 19th-century novel. Though the story is set in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, the film was lensed in Spain. Senta Berger is Read More

Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why

Synopsis: American entrepreneur Jerry Warren is credited with the direction of Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why. Judging by Warren's cinematic track record, however, one comes to the conclusion that his "direction" consisted of re-editing the scenes and supervising the English-language dubbing. Filmed in Read More

In Nome del Padre

Synopsis: Set in a Catholic boy's school, this wearisome tale concerns a group of obnoxious rich students and their pompous headmasters. The film tries hard to be an allegory of the anti-establishment social atmosphere of the early 1970s, evidently attempting to prove that Mankind is basically bestial by Read More

Beware of a Holy Whore

Actors: Lou Castel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Synopsis: This film by wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his 10th, is one of the rare films about filmmaking which was said by the critics to have succeeded both technically and as drama. In it, a German film crew sits in their Italian hotel, waiting for the arrival of their director (Lou Castel), their Read More

Orgasmo

Actors: Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, Colette Descombes, Tino Carraro, Lilla Brignone

Synopsis: One of two thrillers starring Carroll Baker and directed by Umberto Lenzi, this one was released in the United States as Paranoia, the original title of the second one. Katherine West (Baker) is a wealthy alcoholic who travels to her late husband's Italian villa from New York. Soon, a slimy conman Read More

Lucrezia Borgia

Galileo

Actors: Cyril Cusack, Lou Castel, Gigi Ballista, Paolo Graziosi

Synopsis: Somewhat overshadowed by Joseph Losey's 1975 film on the same subject, the 1968 Italian/Bulgarian biopic Galileo is a worthwhile picture in its own right. Irish stage and screen actor Cyril Cusack is well-cast as Galileo Galilei, famed astronomer and unintentional icon-buster. Stirring up Read More

Grazie, Zia

Actors: Lisa Gastoni, Lou Castel, Gabriele Ferzetti

Synopsis: Grazie Zia is better known by its English-language title Thank You, Aunt. As an act of defiance against a world he never fit into, 17-year-old Alvise (Lou Castel) has willed himself into a state of psychosomatic paralysis. From the vantage point of his wheelchair, Alvise cruelly manipulates all Read More

I Protagonisti

Actors: Sylva Koscina, Jean Sorel, Pamela Tiffin, Lou Castel, Luigi Pistilli

Synopsis: An enterprising reporter takes along four willing adventurers to interview and photograph a young Sardinian criminal in hiding. Under intermittent gunfire, they make their way to the mountain hideout of the bandit. After a leisurely conversation and photo session, the encampment comes under fire Read More

Requiescant

A Bullet for the General

Actors: Gian Maria Volontè, Lou Castel, Martine Beswicke, Andrea Checchi, Klaus Kinski

Synopsis: It is early in the 20th century, and an American traveler has come to Mexico at just the wrong time to continue living a peaceful life, for the Revolution has begun and he quickly finds himself in the thick of it. At first, he is right in the middle between government troops and the Read More

I Pugni in Tasca

Actors: Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Masé, Liliana Gerace, Pier Luigi Troglio

Synopsis: Considered one of the great lost classics of Italian neo-realism, this bleak drama was the debut feature of filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. Lou Castel stars as Alessandro, an epileptic from a large family of similarly afflicted siblings, headed up by a blind matriarch (Liliana Gerace). The only Read More