Benoît Poelvoorde (, ; born 22 September 1964) is a Belgian actor and comedian.
Early life
His mother was a grocer and his father a driver, who died when Poelvoorde was still a minor. He attended the Jesuit Boarding School of Godinne before he left home at 17 to take classes at the Félicien Rops Technical Institute in Namur (Belgium) where he met Rémy Belvaux. He developed a passion for theater and became noted for his atypical interpretations. Not only was he destined to become a draughtsman, he also developed professionality as a photographer. During his graphic design studies at the École de recherche graphique in Brussels, he also became friends with André Bonzel and, together with Rémy Belvaux, directed in 1988 Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel, his first movie, a student short film (which he co-directed and co-wrote). It was a stylized trailer for a mock-spy film.
Career
thumb|Benoît Poelvoorde in 2007
In 1992, Poelvoorde, Belvaux and Bonzel wrote, produced and directed together their first long feature C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog internationally) originally a low-budget school graduation project (1992) and a kind of cynical satirical "noir" movie, inspired from the famous Belgian series "Strip-Tease" which went on to become a critically acclaimed cult movie. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC).
Poelvoorde subsequently starred in two series on the French pay-channel Canal+ and several movies such as Les Randonneurs, Le Boulet and Podium, which made him famous in France and Belgium. In 2001, he starred in Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert, a movie about one of his passions, bicycling. In 2002, he received the Jean Gabin Prize, which recognized the most hopeful young talents. Poelvoorde became a member of the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2004 by request of Quentin Tarantino, a big fan of Man Bites Dog who had presided over the Jury that year.
In 2005 he ranked in 7th place in the Walloon version of the Greatest Belgian. In the Flemish version he came in at nr. 400 outside the official list of nominations.
In 2008, his performance in the movie Astérix aux Jeux olympiques won him critical acclaim by both film critics and the public at large. His recurrent character as a pretentious person and a sore loser has drawn comparisons between him and the beloved French comedian Louis de Funès. Poelvoorde also played serious roles. He has starred in 2009 as Etienne Balsan in Coco avant Chanel by Anne Fontain, with Audrey Tautou; as Jean-René in 2010 with Isabelle Carré in a comedy by Jean-Pierre Améris Émotifs anonymes about two extremely shy persons who fall in love, and also as August Maquet in L'autre Dumas by Safy Nebbou, alongside Gérard Depardieu and Dominique Blanc, a movie about the creative ghostwriter, Maquet, who played a crucial role in the production of French writer Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers.
For his work in A Place on Earth (2013), Poelvoorde received a Magritte Award for Best Actor.
He played God in the satirical movie The Brand New Testament (2015).
Personal life
In November 2008, the actor suffered from depression and was briefly hospitalized at his request in the psychiatric unit of the CHR of Namur. The actor revealed in interviews that he has bipolar disorder.
In 2019, during the shooting of the movie Raoul Taburin a un secret, based on the book by Jean-Jacques Sempé, Poelvoorde had a bicycle accident and received 17 stitches.
Selected filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Director
|-
|1992
|Man Bites Dog
|Ben
|Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde
|-
|rowspan="2"|1997
|Pour rire ("Just for Laughs")
|The innocent
|Lucas Belvaux
|-
|Les Randonneurs ("Hikers")
|Éric
|Philippe Harel
|-
|1998
|Les convoyeurs attendent ("The Carriers Are Waiting")
|Roger
|Benoît Mariage
|-
|2001
|Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert ("Ghislain Lambert's Bicycle")
|Ghislain Lambert
|Philippe Harel
|-
|2002
|Le Boulet ("Dead Weight")
|Francis Reggio
|Alain Berberian
|-
|2003
|Rire et Châtiment ("Laughter and Punishment")
|First Aid Instructor
|Isabelle Doval
|-
|rowspan="4"|2004
|Podium
|Bernard Frédéric
|Yann Moix
|-
|Atomik Circus, le retour de James Bataille ("The Return of James Battle")
|Allan Chiasse
|Didier Poiraud and Thierry Poiraud
|-
|Narco
|Lenny Bar
|Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche
|-
|Aaltra
|Motocross Layman
|Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern
|-
|rowspan="2"|2005
|Akoibon
|Jean-Mi
|Édouard Baer
|-
|In His Hands
|Laurent Kessler
|Anne Fontaine
|-
|rowspan="2"|2006
|Jean-Philippe
|Bernard Frédéric
|Laurent Tuel
|-
|Charlie Says
|Joss
|Nicole Garcia
|-
|2007
|Two Worlds
|Rémy Bassano
|Daniel Cohen
|-
|rowspan="2"|2008
|Astérix at the Olympic Games
|Brutus
|Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier
|-
|Louise Hires a Contract Killer
|Guy, the engineer
|Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine
|-
|rowspan="3"|2009
|Beauties at War
|Franck Chevrel
|Patrice Leconte
|-
|Coco Before Chanel
|Étienne Balsan
|Anne Fontaine
|-
|Park Benches
|Customer at the wardrobe
|Bruno Podalydès
|-
|rowspan="5"|2010
|Dumas
|Auguste Maquet
|Safy Nebbou
|-
|Mammuth
|Competitor
|Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern
|-
|Romantics Anonymous
|Jean-René Van Den Hugde
|Jean-Pierre Améris
|-
|Kill Me Please
|Monsieur Demanet
|Olias Barco
|-
|Nothing to Declare
|Ruben Vandevoorde
|Dany Boon
|-
|2011
|My Worst Nightmare
|Patrick
|Anne Fontaine
|-
|2012
|Le Grand Soir
|Benoît Savelli a.k.a. "Not"
|Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine
|-
|rowspan="2"|2013
|Une histoire d'amour
|Banker
|Hélène Fillières
|-
|The Big Bad Wolf
|Philippe
|Nicolas Charlet & Bruno Lavaine
|-
|rowspan="2"|2014
|The Price of Fame
| Eddy Ricaart
|Xavier Beauvois
|-
|Three Hearts
| Marc
|Benoît Jacquot
|-
|rowspan="2"|2015
|The Brand New Testament
| God
|Jaco Van Dormael
|-
|Une famille à louer
| Paul-André Delalande
|Jean-Pierre Améris
|-
|rowspan="2"|2016
|The Jews
| Boris
|Yvan Attal
|-
|Saint-Amour
|Bruno
|Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine
|-
|2018
| Keep an Eye Out
|Commissaire Buron
| Quentin Dupieux
|-
|2019
| Adoration
|Hinkel
| Fabrice Du Welz
|-
|2020
|Delete History
|Deliveryman
|
|-
|2021
|The Green Shutters
|Félix
|Jean Becker
|-
|2021
|Inexorable
| Marcel Bellmer
| Fabrice Du Welz
|-
| 2024
| Beating Hearts
| La Brosse
| Gilles Lellouche
|-
| 2024
| The Art of Nothing
| Yves Machond
| Stefan Liberski
|-
|}
Voice acting
- 1996 : Les Guignols de l'info: Alain Madelin (1 episode)
- 2009 : A Town Called Panic
- 2024: Savages
Short films
- 1997 : Le Signaleur
- 1988 : Pas de C4 pour Daniel Daniel by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel
References
External links
- Theatre acting career summary (from L'Annuaire du Spectacle on the Centre de recherche et de documentation littéraires et théâtrales de la Communauté française de Belgique web site)