Benoît Poelvoorde

Biography: life and films

Benoît Poelvoorde is one of the most familiar faces in mainstream Francophone cinema today. He started out as primarily a comic actor, finding mainstream success in the 1990s before taking on more challenging roles that allowed him to widened his repertoire and prove his ability as a serious dramatic performer. Despite his long association with French cinema, he is in fact Belgian, and was born in Namur, Belgium, on 22nd September 1964. His father was long-distance lorry driver who died when he was 12; his mother a grocer. He left home at the age of 17 to study applied arts at the Félicien Rops Institute in Namur, before moving onto the École de recherche graphique in Brussels. It was here that he struck up a lasting friendship with André Bonzel and Rémy Belvaux, with whom he made his first short film, a mock trailer entitled Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel (1988).

Poelvoorde's film career began proper four years later when he teamed up with Bonzel and Belvaux again to make their first feature, C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992). An outrageous black comedy in the faux documentary line, this micro-budget film was destined to became a cult favourite and was a surprising hit in the French-speaking world. It also enjoyed some popularity with English-speaking audiences, under the title Man Bites Dog. Mainstream success quickly came Poelvoorde's way when Philippe Harel gave him the lead role in his hit comedy Les Randonneurs (1997). Benoît Mariage then gave him a made-to-measure role in another off-kilter black comedy, Les Convoyeurs attendent (1998). The actor's popularity was assured by the immense success of the blockbuster comedy Le Boulet (2002), which attracted an audience of over three million. That same year he received the Prix Jean-Gabin, which is awarded to promising actors.

By now, Benoît Poelvoorde was best known for playing grotesques - cynical, sinister or just downright nasty pieces of work. In Yann Moix's Podium (2004) he leans more towards pathos, playing a man who mistakenly believes himself to be the double of pop idol Claude François. The following year, he had his first important dramatic role in Anne Fontaine's Entre ses mains (2005), in which he pulls off the seemingly impossible feat of making us sympathise with his monstrous character (a possible serial killer). Other dramatic follows followed - in Nicole Garcia's Selon Charlie (2006), Anne Fontaine's Coco avant Chanel (2009), Safy Nebbou's L'Autre Dumas (2010) - and these allowed Poelvoorde to go on surprising his audience with his versatility and an unexpected ability to move as well as make us laugh. Despite his declared intent that he would retire from cinema in 2010, Benoît Poelvoorde is as busy as ever, alternating comedy and drama and getting better all the time. After playing God in Jaco Van Dormael's Le Tout nouveau testament (2015) you can't help wondering where his career is going to go next...

Filmography