15 Audrey Tautou Movies and TV Shows Rated From Best To Worst

Audrey Tautou’s movies have seen her compared to one of the greatest names in the history of film and entertainment – . Of course, it is worthy of note that bears the same first name as the legendary British actress and many have argued, she also bears a facial resemblance to Hepburn as well.

Audrey is French, however, and was born on August 9, 1976. The actress started her acting career at the age of 17 and appeared in a few local films and series over the next three years. Her film debut in 1999 on Venus Beauty Institute also won the actress her first award –  the César Award for Most Promising Actress.

She came into international acclaim two years later when she played the lead role of Amélie Poulain in the French rom-com Amélie. The film was massively successful and bagged four César Awards, a European Film, two BAFTA Awards, and five Academy Award nominations. Tautou seems to have a knack for making the right career moves having shown in movies like Dirty Pretty Things (2002), A Very Long Engagement (2004)and Priceless (2004).

She has had her career low-points, however. We have outlined 15 of Audrey Tautou’s movies and TV shows in descending order from best to worst.

15 Audrey Tautou Movies and TV Shows Rated From Best To Worst

1. Ensemble, c’est Tout (Hunting and Gathering, 2007)

The story follows the lives and circumstances of three singles in Paris as they strive to make sense of their dreams while trying to fix their single status. This whimsical romantic comedy saw Audrey Tautou play the role of Camille, a young woman characterized by her emotional and physical fragility.

Ensemble, c’est Tout was a massive success at the French box office, recording $45.8 million gross on a $12.2 million budget.  Among other awards, the rom-com got itself three César Award nominations, winning one of them. It also earned itself a perfect approval rating of 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

2. Dirty Pretty Things (2003)

The social thriller tells the story of two immigrants in London, one a Nigerian doctor () on the run from his home country, and the other a Turkish Muslim (Audrey Tautou) seeking asylum. Dirty Pretty Things is the story of these two as they battle to escape the oppression that comes with their immigrant status. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes arrived at a consensus that praised the film for the nuanced way in which it shed light on the horrors and exploitation that illegal immigrants sometimes have to go through.

The movie also earned itself a 94 percent approval rating on the movie aggregator site, won a British Independent Film Award, and earned an Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Original Screenplay.

3. Microbe et Gasoil (Microbe & Gasoline, 2015)

Heralded as a thoughtful and satisfying movie by critics and fans alike, Microbe & Gasoline tells the story of two young boys who are drawn to each other by their common exclusion from the world of the socially accepted and popular kids at school. On the back of their new friendship, the two outcasts decide to take a road trip through France in their self-made vehicle.

Tautou is not one of the lead actors on this comedy film, however, she does play a key supporting character known as Marie-Thérèse Guéret. While it was a commercial flop, it definitely resonated with critics on platforms like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, with both giving the film a 91 percent approval rating and a 75/100 score respectively.

4. Amélie (2001)

Amélie Poulain is a young French woman who works in a local cafe. Despite the tragedies and sad circumstances of her childhood and adult life, Amélie has managed to maintain a positive and caring disposition about life and towards people. Inspired by the 1997 car crash that took the life of , Amélie decides to spend her every waking moment helping and caring for others in every way she can.

Banking a $174.2 million gross against a $10 million budget, Amélie is probably the most commercially successful French production the actress has been on so far. Its overwhelming positive response has seen it earn an 89 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

5. The Trouble With You (2018)

Police detective and widow Yvonne Santi is a well-respected figure in her town. However, all that is put in danger when she discovers that her late husband police chief Santi is responsible for putting an innocent man behind bars eight years prior, for a crime he committed.

This Audrey Tautou movie sees the actress play the supporting role of Agnés Parent. While the movie failed to break even, it has earned itself some recognition with an 83 percent approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics and a 6.5/10 score from IMDb users.

6. Priceless (2006)

Here Iréne Mercier (Tautou) is an experienced gold digger who, true to her profession, holds money and luxury as important over everything else-including love. Her resolve to maintain her current lifestyle is put to the test when she is discarded by her rich partner around the same time she meets a young bartender, Jean (Gad Elmaleh), during their vacation to the French Rivera.

As she tries to show Jean the tricks of the gold-digging trade, they start to realize that they may mean more to each other than they first thought. Priceless more than doubled its budget at the box office and earned itself an 81 approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

7. A Very Long Engagement (2004)

In this movie Tautou’s character, Mathilde Donnay perfectly portrays the meaning of unrelenting love. A Very Long Engagement is set during the days of World War I. It tells the story of Mathilde and her desperate search for the man she is engaged to after she receives news of his death at the war front. The romantic war film earned a César Award and was nominated for an Oscar and an Academy Award. It also earned a 78 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

8. L’Auberge Espagnole (2002)

Xavier (Romaine Duris) is a French student of economics who gets a job offer to work in the Ministry of Finance, thanks to his father’s connections. However, the offer comes with one condition – that he learns how to speak French. Undaunted, Xavier leaves his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) behind and enrolls in a language program in Barcelona. This move exposes him to many experiences that challenge his culture and way of life as well as his commitment to his girlfriend back home.

This Audrey Tautou movie was made on a budget of $5.6 million and grossed $31 million at the box office. It holds a 76 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is praised for perfectly depicting the chaos and excitement that often comes with being young.

9. Not on the Lips (2003)

Gilberte Valandray (Sabine Azéma) is a woman with everything to lose in terms of her reputation and social standing. She is enjoying life and the company of her best friend Huguette (Audrey Tautou) when her American ex-husband, Eric Thomson (Lambert Wilson) arrives France on the request of her current husband. This throws Gilberte into a frantic attempt to try to keep the secret of her past relationship with Eric a secret from her husband, Georges Valandray (Pierre Arditi).

This musical film received largely polarized reviews. In France, however, the reviews were more positive as reflected by its 75 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was a commercial failure though as it failed to break even on its production budget.

10. Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls, 2005)

This is the second installment in the Spanish Apartment trilogy. Picking up where L’Auberge Espagnole left off, Russian Dolls continues to portray the happenings in the lives of Xavier, Martine, and his friends from his time at Barcelona. At this point, Xavier and Martine have broken and have each taken up a career as an environmental activist and a freelance writer respectively.

This Audrey Tautou movie performed slightly below its predecessor, recording a 72 percent approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics. It was a relative box office success, however, recording a little over double of its $10 million production budget.

11. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (2002)

While Audrey Tautou’s movies have seen her play the role of a lover before, this is the first time she takes that into overdrive. Tautou’s character (Angélique) is obsessed with Loic (Samuel Le Bihan), a cardiologist with stable family life, complete with a wife and an unborn child. However, as Angélique’s feverish obsession for Loic begins to lose discretion, it threatens her own wellbeing and relationships as well as Loic’s family life and career as well.

This French psych drama film premiered in theaters on March 27, 2002, and has since earned itself a 71 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was especially praised for using Audrey’s Amélie-type potential to its full potential.

12. Happenstance (2000)

Audrey Tautou plays a lead role as a shop assistant Iréne, who throughout the film goes through several experiences with a few characters, none of who really know each other. However, these seemingly unrelated activities and experiences are meant to either bring all the characters together or drive them apart. Unlike other titles on this list, Happenstance does not really have a storyline but is simply a play on the chaos theory.

The consensus of critics on Rotten Tomatoes viewed the film as nothing more than a gimmick that was good enough to serve as a past time. They stamped it with an average approval rating of 64 percent.

13. Coco Before Chanel (2009)

A French biographical drama film, as written by the director and scriptwriter Anne Fontaine. Coco Before Chanel tells the story of the legendary French fashion designer Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, as she makes her way from being an abandoned child to fashion goddess.

Audrey Tautou plays the lead role of Coco in this drama film. Although it was regarded as a little dull by many celebrity critics, it was praised for its unsentimental approach the retelling of the subject’s life. It holds a 63 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received over 20 award nominations.

 

14. Venus Beauty Institute  (1999)

This marked the actresses debut feature film. In it, Audrey, along with Nathalie Baye, and Mathilde Seigner play the lead roles of Marie, Angèle, and Samantha respectively. These three search for love and companionship in their own way. Angèle favors the “friends with benefits” model, Samantha already has too many lovers than she can handle, while Marie, who is the youngest among them is just learning what it means to love and be loved.

The movie was made on a budget of $2.9 million and recorded a gross of $7.4 million. The movie which earned a 59 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes won itself 4 César Awards, including one for Tatou.

15. The DaVinci Code (2006)

As the last on our list of Audrey Tautou movies and TV shows, The DaVinci Code commands mixed feelings. For one, it was a massive success at the box office, bringing in $758.2 million worldwide on a budget of $125 million. However, the movie also has the worst critic review on this list by a mile.

Following the murder of a curator at the Louvre, the world’s largest art museum in Paris, symbologist () and the victim’s daughter Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) band together to uncover a secret that his death unveils by following the clues he left behind. They did this all the while trying to find out who murdered him.

The DaVinci Code was announced as completely missing the point of its original material – Dan Brown’s 2003 novel of the same name. Critics went on to term the movie as “dull and bloated” and slapped it with a depressingly low approval rating of 25 percent.

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