Del.icio.usPatrice Leconte
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Leconte's films are renowned for pushing the boundaries of genre and visual style while pondering the human condition. Most recently, he did so in Man On The Train, a comic fairy tale about two men, a bank robbing vagabond and a bored poetry teacher, whose accidental encounter leads each to alter the other's life and dreams. The film won the Best Foreign Language Film award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 2003.
He previously tackled the theme of love from another angle in The Girl on the Bridge, a story about risk, chance and fate starring Vanessa Paradis and Daniel Auteuil; and that of obsession in the global hit Monsieur Hire, starring comedian Michel Blanc as recessive tailor who is suspected of murder simply because he spends all his time watching his attractive neighbor played by Sandrine Bonnaire.
Leconte's best known films in the U.S. also include the Oscar-nominated Ridicule, a comedy about power and social climbing set in the 18th century's Court of Versailles, which won four Cesars, including Best Film and Best Director; The Hairdresser's Husband, starring Jean Rochefort as a man who gets a chance to fulfill his life-long dream of marrying a hairdresser; Tango, a black comedy about a man who believes his troubles might end if he could only do away with his wife; and The Widow of St. Pierre, starring Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil and Emir Kusturica in a true story of revenge and redemption in the 1850s.
Leconte began making films in the mid-1970s and by the mid-80s had established a reputation for constantly switching gears. One of his early acclaimed films was Tandem, his first exploration of male friendship starring Jean Rochefort and Gerard Jugnot as two quarreling game-show hosts on a road trip.
In 1997, Leconte directed Half A Chance, an action-comedy featuring the comeback of French icons Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Among his other more recent films are: Rues des Plaisirs (Love Street) starring Laetitia Casta in a love story set in a Paris brothel; and Felix and Lola, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Philippe Torreton.
Leconte is particularly intrigued by the role of music in motion pictures - as evidenced by the way he weaves the scores for his films into the storytelling -- and contributed a preface to Jean-Pierre Eugene's book La Musique dans les films d'Alfred Hitchcock.
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Patrice Leconte Facts
| Occupation | Director |
| Birthday | November 12, 1947 (60) |
| Sign | Scorpio |
| Birthplace | Paris, France |
Selected Filmography
Bio courtesy Paramount Classics for "Intimate Strangers" (25-Aug-2004)