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Gerard Depardieu

Gerard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu was born to a poor French family in Châteauroux, France on 27 December 1948 and was one of a family of 6 children. As a child born in post war France, life was rather drab for many French families, such as his. Gerard brightened his youthful time by frequenting the US Military base close to his local village and spending his time 'on the streets' rather than at school. He became enamoured with the American way of life and spent much time dreaming of becoming a Hollywood movie star and 'living the dream'. He admits that he fell in with some bad people, although not essentially by design and thankfully managed to move away from this. He eventually met someone who helped him on the road to his fabulous acting career. When he was 16 he decided to leave home for Paris, where he met and was nurtured in his acting career by Jean-Laurent Cochet. His big acting role came when he played a hunch back farmer in a little known gem film 'Jean De Florette' (a must view for Depardieu fans). His big break came with his part in 'Cyrano De Bergerac'' for which he received a 'cesar' award. In 1970 Depardieu married Élisabeth Guignot with whom he had two children, actor Guillaume (1971–2008) and actress Julie, whom he has since divorced and gone onto other relationships. From his marriage to Elisabeth he had two children, a son, Guillaume and a daughter, Julie who is also an actress. Sadly his son died of pneumonia in October 2008.

Gerard eventually achieved his life dream of becoming a Hollywood star and going to America and made several 'light-weight' films achieving world notoriety in such movies as 'Green Card' and 'My Father The Hero'. However, the US life was not all he had thought it would be, and one of the problems he struggled was the difference in US and French culture, especially in relation to food attitudes. He has said in his biography that he could not understand Americans eating habits on set, going off individually to eat sandwiches or fast foods, whilst he was used to meal times being a time for family and friends to get together and take their time over eating fine foods and drinking fine wine, Gerard was suffering from homesickness, and he found this such a problem that he eventually employed his own team of chefs and people to travel with him - giving him similar experiences of his own French culture - he admits that good food and wine are of importance to him, and often oversaw the preparation of the meals personally.

Depardieu eventually, all but, dropped out of the Hollywood scene preferring to spend time in his native France and Paris, he went has gone on to make many more highly successful and superb French movies, such as 'The Count of Monte Christo' in 1998, in which he is taken as a serious actor of extremely high calibre, and has worked with Daniel Auteuill, a fellow superb French actor on several occasions including the brilliant '36'. Sadly for fans, Depardieu made the decision to retire, but in his own words has achieved all he wanted in film making, and has left a huge legacy of movies, most of which can be found for purchase or rental at Love Film.


News | What members say | Filmography | Watch online (2)

Gerard Depardieu - news / articles


  • Depardieu to retire - 1 November 2005
    The French star Gerard Depardieu who has become synonymous with his country's cinema has announced that he is to retire from the movie business.-Depardieu, star of Jean De Florette and Cyrano De Bergerac, told said Le Parisien: "I have nothing to lose. I have made 17

Gerard Depardieu - what members say


  • Jean De Florette
  • Jean De Florette review by A customer from Oxford
    Rated - 4 stars French Connection 20 September 2003
    ...y shot in the French countryside with an almost photographic eye for images. Gerard Depardieu's performance must rank as one of cinema's greatest performances and he is more...  
  • Cyrano De Bergerac
  • Cyrano De Bergerac review by from LONDON
    Rated - 5 stars 24 March 2004
    ...This is fantastic film from script, to photography to the acting. Gerard Depardieu excels in the role and is superbly supported by a great cast. My only minor gripe is that t...  
  • The Count Of Monte Cristo
  • The Count Of Monte Cristo review by A customer from Falkland, Fife
    Rated - 5 stars Fantastic family viewing 22 December 2005
    ...long with my family and we all found it to be a superb film. I am an admirer of Gerard Depardieus work and in this film he is very believable as the main character 'dante'. The...  

Gerard Depardieu - filmography


  • Bellamy (2009)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Marie Bunel,  Clovis Cornillac
    Director: Claude Chabrol
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    As each year, commissioner Paul Bellamy stay in Nemes in the family home with his wife Francoise. She has a dream : a cruise to the end of the world but Paul hates travelling. A double pretext will spot and save him : the unexpected arrival of Jacques his half-brother, and the appeareance of a ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 55% from 2 members
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  • Mesrine - Parts 1 & 2 (2009)
    Starring: Roy Dupuis,  Vincent Cassel,  Gilles Lellouche
    Director: Jean-Francois Richet
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Jacques Mesrine, last of the great French gangsters, was declared Public Enemy Number One during his lifetime. He regularly finished atop the list of newsmakers in opinion polls. His spectacular death, shot full of holes by police at close range in the middle of Paris, put the crowning touch on his ..read more »
    Rate this: 4 stars out of 5 78% from 199 members
    Due for release on 4th January 2010
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  • Babylon A.D. on DVD (2008)
    Starring: Vin Diesel,  Michelle Yeoh,  Melanie Thierry
    Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Veteran-turned-mercenary Thoorop (Diesel) takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America in a post-apocalyptic world. But it isn't long before they are pursued by warring factions who are both determined to take the girl, and it is up to Thoorop to stop them.
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 53% from 10,942 members
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  • The Singer on DVD (2006)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Cecile De France,  Mathieu Amalric
    Director: Xavier Giannoli
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
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    Alain Moreau is a singer who has been playing the provincial dance hall circuit for many years, with his ex-wife managing his career. One night, he meets Marion, a young, attractive but troubled woman, trying to rebuild her life with her son, after a failed marriage. It results in a night of ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 54% from 3,030 members
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  • Last Holiday on DVD (2006)
    Starring: Queen Latifah,  L.L. Cool J.,  Timothy Hutton
    Director: Wayne Wang
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Latifah stars as Georgia Byrd, a reserved plus-sized woman who lives a dreary, ordinary life in New Orleans, where she dreams of an elegant existence filled with fancy food, stylish clothing, and high-society parties. But she spends most of her evenings eating frozen dinners all alone, often ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 60% from 11,157 members
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  • 36 on DVD (2005)
    Starring: Daniel Auteuil,  Gerard Depardieu,  Valeria Golino
    Director: Olivier Marchal
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    In the underbelly of the Parisian criminal world, the Police are frustrated by a gang committing a series of violent robberies. Leo Vrinks and Denis Klein are two cops seeking promotion and the imminent departure of the Chief sets the scene for them to compete for the vacant throne. Their ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 10,610 members
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  • Bogus (2004)
    Starring: Whoopi Goldberg,  Denis Mercier,  Nancy Travis
    Director: Norman Jewison
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    After the death of his mother, 7-year-old Albert is sent to live with his godmother Harriet. The overworked Harriet is VERY reluctant to take the boy in, and has trouble bonding with him. However, Albert does relate to his large, French imaginary friend named Bogus, who helps Albert cope with the ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 55% from 35 members
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  • Nathalie on DVD (2003)
    Starring: Emmanuelle Beart,  Gerard Depardieu,  Fanny Ardant
    Director: Anne Fontaine
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Tormented by the suspicion of her husband's adultery, Catherine (Fanny Ardant), a bourgeois Parisian businesswoman, seeks the help of a beautiful but mysterious call-girl, Nathalie (Emmanuelle Beart), to uncover the truth once and for all. As she hears the intimate details of her husband's mettings ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 58% from 4,073 members
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  • Crime Spree (2003)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Harvey Keitel,  Johnny Hallyday
    Director: Brad Mirman
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    CRIME SPREE is a comedic crime caper about a group of French burglars who bumble their way through one culture clash after another. Sent from Paris to Chicago to pull off a heist, the six inept criminals (including Gerard Depardieu and French pop stars Johnny Hallyday and Renaud) mistakenly enter ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 57% from 1,177 member
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  • City Of Ghosts on DVD (2002)
    Starring: Matt Dillon,  James Caan,  Natascha McElhone
    Director: Matt Dillon
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Actor Matt Dillon (OVER THE EDGE, THE OUTSIDERS) makes his directorial debut with CITY OF GHOSTS, an atmospheric thriller about an American man who finds himself in a very dangerous Cambodia. Dillon plays Jimmy Cremmins, a New York scam artist who has been working as a front man for a phony ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 47% from 2,342 members
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  • CQ (2001)
    Starring: Jeremy Davies,  Angela Lindvall,  Elodie Bouchez
    Director: Roman Coppola
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Paris, 1969. The filming of a sci-fi movie set in the distant year 2000 is in trouble. The director's obsession with the actress who plays the sexy secret agent Dragonfly has clouded his judgement and the film has no ending. A young American (Jeremy Davies), in Paris to document his life on film ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 56% from 15 members
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  • Vatel (2000)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Uma Thurman,  Tim Roth
    Director: Roland Joffe
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Set in 1671 France under the decadent reign of Louis XIV, VATEL charts the events of a three-day feast in an impoverished western province. In an effort to impress the gilded king and then ask him for financial support, Prince de Condé (Julian Glover) invites Louis XIV (Julian Sands) to his country ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 37 members
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  • 102 Dalmatians on DVD (2000)
    Starring: Glenn Close,  Gerard Depardieu,  Tim McInnerny
    Director: Kevin Lima
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Glenn Close returns as the malicious fur-collecting fashion plate Cruella De Vil in Disney's 102 DALMATIANS, the highly anticipated sequel to the 1996 live-action blockbuster. Pursuading the authorities that she has been successfully rehabilitated, De Vil is released from prison, seemingly ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 62% from 3,667 members
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  • The Count Of Monte Cristo (2 discs) on DVD (1998)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Ornella Muti,  Jean Rochefort
    Director: Josee Dayan
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Alexandre Dumas' THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO follows the adventures of Edmond Dantes (Gerard Depardieu), a 19th-century French version of James Bond or Batman, a rich, ruthless, and suave purveyor of homemade justice. This French production goes all out, having the destinction of being the first ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 2,378 members
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  • The Secret Agent (1996)
    Starring: Bob Hoskins,  Patricia Arquette,  Gerard Depardieu
    Director: Christopher Hampton
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    The life of an undercover Russian agent, posing as a quiet shopkeeper in London in order to infiltrate a ring of anarchists, is thrown into turmoil when his employers order him to plant a bomb at the Greenwich Observatory. Based on the novel by Joseph Conrad.
    Rate this: 2 stars out of 5 35% from 20 members
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  • A Pure Formality (1994)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Roman Polanski
    Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Two legendary screen talents go head-to-head in this intriguing, utterly original psychological thriller, described by one critic as "Colombo meets Kafka." Gerard Depardieu stars as Onaff, a famed French novelist who is arrested in a small provincial town when he is found breathless and ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 63% from 565 members
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  • Germinal (1993)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Miou-Miou,  Renaud
    Director: Claude Berri
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Set in 19th Century France, the story follows jobless Etienne Lantier who leaves his home in search of work and arrives in the mining town of Montsou where the workers are poorly paid while the ruthless mine bosses get richer. Disturbed by what he sees, Lantier starts to organise the miners into ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 713 members
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  • Merci La Vie (1991)
    Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg,  Anouk Grinberg,  Gerard Depardieu
    Director: Bertrand Blier
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    In Betrand Blier's MERCI LA VIE, two young women at the end of their ropes--Camille (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Joelle (Anounk Grinberg)--cause mayhem in a small town. A dark, surreal comedy, Blier's film is perplexing, shocking, and fascinating.
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 47% from 727 members
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  • Green Card on DVD (1990)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Andie MacDowell,  Robert Prosky
    Director: Peter Weir
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    When two strangers agree to a marriage of convenience, they think it's going to be hassle-free. But before they know it, the two opposites are faced with more difficulties than most married couples could ever imagine. And worst yet, they may just be falling in love. Academy Award Nominations: Best (..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 59% from 7,253 members
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  • Chevre, La (1981)
    Starring: Pierre Richard,  Gerard Depardieu,  Pedro Armendariz Jr.
    Director: Francis Veber
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    LA CHEVRE introduced the popular comic duo of Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard, who went on to star in a number of other films together. Here they are François Perrin (Richard) and Campana (Depardieu), two bumbling detectives hired to find the twenty-year-old daughter of a wealthy industrialist. ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 73% from 20 members
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  • My American Uncle on DVD (1980)
    Starring: Nicole Garcia,  Gerard Depardieu
    Director: Alain Resnais
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Alain Resnais's MON ONCLE D'AMERIQUE may be the best all-around display of the director's unique narrative and photographic techniques. The film begins with still photographs appearing on the screen as a narrator gives a quick biography of each of the three characters in the movie: Jean, Janine, ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 65% from 153 members
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  • Bye Bye Monkey (1978)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Marcello Mastroianni
    Director: Marco Ferreri
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Anarchic black comedy. Depardieu works for a New York waxworks and an aggressive feminist theatre company. When he and his friends find a dead 40-foot ape on the banks of the Hudson (surprising them less than you might imagine) he adopts the baby chimp nestled in its arms. Gradually he begins to ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 60% from 4 members
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  • Maitresse on DVD (1976)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Bulle Ogier,  Andre Rouyer
    Director: Barbet Schroeder
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
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    A young Depardieu stars as Olivier, a petty thief who gets drawn into the world of S&M when his next door neighbor, a high-priced dominatrix (Ogier), catches him burglarizing her apartment. The two embark on a tumultuous, kinky relationship in Schroeder's intense, often funny, examination of love, ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 53% from 818 members
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Gerard Depardieu - watch online


  • The Singer to Watch Now (2006)
    Starring: Gérard Depardieu,  Gerard Depardieu,  Cécile De France
    Director: Xavier Giannoli
    Certificate: Certificate: 12 (TBC)
    Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
    Run time: 109 minutes
    Alain Moreau sings for one of the few remaining dance-bands in Clermont-Ferrand. Though something of an idol amongst his female audience he has a melancholic awareness of the slow disappearance of that audience and of his advancing years. He is completely knocked off balance when he meets ..read more »
    Rate this: 5 stars out of 5 100% from 1 member
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  • Maitresse to Watch Now (1976)
    Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Bulle Ogier,  Andre Rouyer
    Director: Barbet Schroeder
    Certificate: Certificate: 18 (TBC)
    Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
    Run time: 108 minutes
    A young Depardieu stars as Olivier, a petty thief who gets drawn into the world of S&M when his next door neighbor, a high-priced dominatrix (Ogier), catches him burglarizing her apartment. The two embark on a tumultuous, kinky relationship in Schroeder's intense, often funny, examination of love, ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 50% from 1 member
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Gerard Depardieu facts

5 most recent films

Bellamy - 3.0 stars
Mesrine - Parts 1 & 2 - 4.0 stars
Mesrine - Parts 1 & 2 - BLU-RAY Version - 3.5 stars
Babylon A.D. - BLU-RAY Version - 2.5 stars
Babylon A.D. - 2.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Mesrine - Parts 1 & 2 - 4.0 stars
Jean De Florette - 4.0 stars
Cyrano De Bergerac - 4.0 stars
Shut Up! AKA Tais-Toi! - 3.5 stars
La Vie En Rose - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

The Secret Agent - 2.0 stars
La Femme Musketeer - 2.5 stars
CQ - 2.5 stars
L'Abbuffata - 3.0 stars
Bellamy - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Jean Carmet - 6 times - show films
Fanny Ardant - 6 times - show films
Clotilde Courau - 5 times - show films
Cecile De France - 5 times - show films
Anne Brochet - 5 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Bertrand Blier - 8 times - show films
Josee Dayan - 4 times - show films
Gerard Lauzier - 4 times - show films
Alain Corneau - 4 times - show films
Olivier Dahan - 4 times - show films