Noël Simsolo

Acting

Noël Simsolo

Born

1944-08-31 (82)

Place of birth

Périgueux - Dordogne - France

Known for

Acting

Credits

55 titles

Noël Simsolo is a French film historian, actor, screenwriter and director, as well as a well-known novelist

Known for

Maigret and the Dead Lover poster
6.0

Commissioner Maigret rushes to the Quai d’Orsay with Lieutenant Janvier. There, they find Mademoiselle Larrieu in a state of shock. That very morning, she discovered the bullet-riddled body of Mr. Berthier-Lagès, a renowned former ambassador whom she had served as a housekeeper for 46 years. While searching the victim's apartment, Maigret and Janvier uncover hundreds of letters. The diplomat had maintained a fifty-year-long love correspondence with a certain Princess of Vuynes, whose husband - by a strange coincidence - had died just a few days earlier. As he confronts the various members of the two families and the suspicious silence of Mademoiselle Larrieu, Maigret finds himself faced with surprise after surprise, watching his certainties crumble - until the solution to the mystery finally hits him in the face at the very last moment...

Maigret and the Dead Lover

2026

Torment poster
6.9

Working extremely hard to keep his hotel afloat, Paul begins hearing voices in his head. Convinced that his wife has been unfaithful, he begins to see every male guest as a potential threat. What follows is Paul's downward spiral into the madness of deranged jealousy where he finally discovers that hell is not a state of mind – hell is himself.

Torment

1994

The Mother and the Whore poster
7.3

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

The Mother and the Whore

1973

'Round Midnight poster
7.1

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

'Round Midnight

1986

The Color of Lies poster
5.9

In a small Breton town, a 10-year-old girl is found murdered. René, her art teacher, a professional painter, is the last person to have seen her alive. The inspector in charge of the investigation immediately questions him. In this small provincial town where people all know each other and regularly meet at the Bar des Amis, René is increasingly unsettled by the other inhabitants' suspicions and by the inspector's investigation. Children stop coming to him for lessons. His wife, Viviane, a district nurse, protects him and supports him with her love. However, a self-centred media-star writer adds to René's confusion...

The Color of Lies

1999

Rosa la rose, fille publique poster
5.3

A radiant young sex worker thrives amidst the clients of Paris’s Les Halles under the protectiveness of her pimp. Her carefully balanced existence unravels when she meets a working‑class man and falls in love, forcing her to confront the emotional and social consequences of pursuing a different path.

Rosa la rose, fille publique

1986

Film credits

2020s · 2 titles

2010s · 6 titles

1990s · 5 titles

Torment poster
6.9

Working extremely hard to keep his hotel afloat, Paul begins hearing voices in his head. Convinced that his wife has been unfaithful, he begins to see every male guest as a potential threat. What follows is Paul's downward spiral into the madness of deranged jealousy where he finally discovers that hell is not a state of mind – hell is himself.

Torment

1994

The Color of Lies poster
5.9

In a small Breton town, a 10-year-old girl is found murdered. René, her art teacher, a professional painter, is the last person to have seen her alive. The inspector in charge of the investigation immediately questions him. In this small provincial town where people all know each other and regularly meet at the Bar des Amis, René is increasingly unsettled by the other inhabitants' suspicions and by the inspector's investigation. Children stop coming to him for lessons. His wife, Viviane, a district nurse, protects him and supports him with her love. However, a self-centred media-star writer adds to René's confusion...

The Color of Lies

1999

La Cabale des oursins poster
5.8

A travelogue of abandoned strip mining sites in France extolling their potential for recreational use.

La Cabale des oursins

1992

Mesmer poster
6.0

A biography of the eighteenth century Viennese physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who used unorthodox healing practices based on his theory of "animal magnetism."

Mesmer

1994

Children of the Stork poster
6.6

Three French pals take to the road in a stolen car and discover a talking, wounded stork — who claims to have deserted the Algerian army — and help it to escape to the home of a relative in Germany.

Children of the Stork

1999

1980s · 5 titles

1970s · 14 titles

The Mother and the Whore poster
7.3

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

The Mother and the Whore

1973

Immoral Women poster
4.8

The first episode – featuring frequent Borowczyk muse Marina Pierro – is the longest and, in a way, most substantial: it’s set in Renaissance Rome, with the lusty (and perpetually nude) leading lady sexually involved with famous painters and church benefactors. The second episode is the most notorious and, consequently, gave the film its controversial poster – featuring a rabbit slowly disappearing under the skirt of a teenage girl (played by Gaelle Legrand). The third and final episode, which has a modern-day setting, is the shortest – but also, possibly, the most outrageous: Pascale Christophe is a young married woman who’s abducted on a busy Parisian street by a small-time hood hidden inside a cardboard box!

Immoral Women

1979

Alice or the Last Escapade poster
6.0

One night Alice can't stand her husband anymore and she decides to leave him. It's a dark, rainy night and something smashes the windshield so Alice is forced to seek shelter in an old mansion. She is warmly welcomed but soon realises that strange things are happening. She tries to escape but it seems there's no way out.

Alice or the Last Escapade

1977

No artwork available
NR

Reel 5 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.

Cinématon V

1979

Male of the Century poster
7.5

The wife of an extremely jealous merchant is held hostage by a bank robber.

Male of the Century

1975

A Whale That Had a Toothache poster
6.7

Bernardette is feeling bored in a country house. She decides to send weekend invitations to a lot of people.

A Whale That Had a Toothache

1975

No artwork available
NR

On the screen, considered as a mental landscape, dance the multicolored shadows born from the spectacle of the struggle of flesh against death.

La Décalcification

1973

Démons de midi poster
7.5

At 45, divorced, unemployed and father of two children, Franois Morot realizes that he can no longer support the society in which he lives and decides to leave everything.

Démons de midi

1979

Eugénie de Franval poster
10.0

Reflection on the relationship between image and voice-over in cinema, punctuated by the reading of a short story by Sade recounting the incestuous love of a father for his daughter.

Eugénie de Franval

1974

Cinématon n°42 : Noël Simsolo poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Cinématon n°42 : Noël Simsolo

1979

Femmes femmes poster
7.3

The fantasies and dreams of two over-the-hill actresses are intertwined with their realities, as the two roommates struggle to survive their day-to-day lives in the expensive and difficult world of Paris.

Femmes femmes

1974

Don't Change Hands poster
5.9

A well-known politician receives a tape showing her son in a porno movie. She decides to hire a female detective to figure out who is trying to blackmail her.

Don't Change Hands

1975

Exhibition poster
3.9

A documentary about the French porn industry, focusing on French porn superstar Claudine Beccarie.

Exhibition

1975

The Two Dykes poster
6.5

A prominent Parisian lawyer, at the dawn of a political career, is welcomed by an old friend and her wife and daughter during a journey in the provinces.

The Two Dykes

1975

Behind the camera

Jean Cocteau: Lies and Truths poster
NR

This documentary consists mainly of archive interviews of Jean Cocteau, and it features interesting contributions by Jean Marais and especially Jean-Luc Godard, who discusses Cocteau's foray into cinema. The film documents all the artistic media explored by a man who defined himself, first and foremost, as a poet.

Jean Cocteau: Lies and Truths

1997

Jean Cocteau: Lies and Truths poster
NR

This documentary consists mainly of archive interviews of Jean Cocteau, and it features interesting contributions by Jean Marais and especially Jean-Luc Godard, who discusses Cocteau's foray into cinema. The film documents all the artistic media explored by a man who defined himself, first and foremost, as a poet.

Jean Cocteau: Lies and Truths

1997

Alfred Hitchcock: The Early Years poster
6.0

Written and directed by Hitchcock historian Noël Simsolo, this 2004 French television documentary explores the earliest years of Alfred Hitchcock's film career, beginning with his success in the production of The Lodger (1926) and following the filmmaker through his transition to sound films and his early thrillers.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Early Years

2004

No artwork available
9.0

Old Léon lives an hour outside Paris, in the company of one of his daughters, his son-in-law and his granddaughter. The latter agrees to take him to see his paralyzed cousin Adolphe in a Paris hospice. He takes the opportunity to visit his first wife, trying to get news of his daughter Louise, who is dead but whom he prefers to believe is alive. What remains is the haunting memory of the daffodils he planted for her...

Les jonquilles

1972

The Dunce poster
5.8

Laurent is seeking a path in life after living his childhood and teenage years in laziness. He has a conflictual relationship with Rodolphe, his father, and both are too emotional to express their mutual affection. Despite the women of his life hanging around him , Rodolphe has but one obsession: meeting Marguerite again, the first love of his life.

The Dunce

2016

Nightmare poster
6.4

A troubled young woman who lives alone in a rundown house meanders around and one day reveals a hidden talent when she goes into a bar, plays magnificently at the piano, and leaves as mysteriously as she came. Meanwhile, an unidentified man is on her trail and eventually tracks her down to the bar she had visited. As the dragnet around her closes in, it becomes apparent that the young woman's stepmother is behind the effort to locate her. But questions over why she is hiding out and what she is hiding from begin to take on more importance as the history of the young woman starts to surface.

Nightmare

1980

Nightmare poster
6.4

A troubled young woman who lives alone in a rundown house meanders around and one day reveals a hidden talent when she goes into a bar, plays magnificently at the piano, and leaves as mysteriously as she came. Meanwhile, an unidentified man is on her trail and eventually tracks her down to the bar she had visited. As the dragnet around her closes in, it becomes apparent that the young woman's stepmother is behind the effort to locate her. But questions over why she is hiding out and what she is hiding from begin to take on more importance as the history of the young woman starts to surface.

Nightmare

1980

No artwork available
6.5

Documentary about the making of Louis Malle's 1963 film "The Fire Within".

Jusqu’au 23 Juillet

2018

Epiphany Sunday poster
6.1

Three old sisters get together every Sunday. For Epiphany Sunday, the program is busy: eating at the Chinese restaurant, drawing the kings and finally going to see, reluctantly, the show of the fourth sister, the extravagant one, the scandalous one, who is part of a comic troupe of the third age...

Epiphany Sunday

1991

Jean Narboni on 'Vivre sa vie' poster
NR

An interview with French film scholar Jean Narboni about Jean-Luc Godard's 1962 film VIVRE SA VIE.

Jean Narboni on 'Vivre sa vie'

2004

No artwork available
NR

A short video by filmmaker Noel Simsolo discussing Jean Cocteau and Jean-Pierre Melville’s creative relationship and the production of the 1950 film LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES.

Around Jean Cocteau

2003

Femmes femmes poster
7.3

The fantasies and dreams of two over-the-hill actresses are intertwined with their realities, as the two roommates struggle to survive their day-to-day lives in the expensive and difficult world of Paris.

Femmes femmes

1974

No artwork available
NR

Shady poetry, all crimson and women’s legs as Pierre Molinier loved it – this poetry died with him a few days ago. This picture was finished. Sexual obsession is a strength just as any other, more pure and more violent than most. Nothing else but what goes against our own nature should be hated.

Pierre Molinier, 7 rue des Faussets

1976

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Décors

1980

At Gunpoint poster
NR

Semi-documentary exposé of scandalous hunting practices in the Sologne, a wooded area south of Orléans where he shared a house at the time. The film, part tribute to Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game (1939) and its celebrated hunting scene, is notable for its cinematography by Polish director Walerian Borowczyk.

At Gunpoint

1977

Les Cuisses en Chaleur poster
6.2

Gaëtan de Vibestu learns from his lawyer that he will inherit a castle and a very large fortune. However, there is one condition: Gaëtan must remain single and not come close to a woman. Very soon, he will have to show a great imagination to deceive lawyer"s surveillance...

Les Cuisses en Chaleur

1976

Don't Change Hands poster
5.9

A well-known politician receives a tape showing her son in a porno movie. She decides to hire a female detective to figure out who is trying to blackmail her.

Don't Change Hands

1975

Si mon cul vous était conté poster
NR

A billionaire looking for a bride and testing the candidates, he will learn what real good sex is thanks to the candidates who are very experienced in satisfying a man.

Si mon cul vous était conté

1981

Peek Freak poster
10.0

When a sexually indulgent couple discover a promiscuous young girl has moved in across the courtyard from their bedroom, they become so erotically charged from watching her sexual exploits that they become Peek Freaks.

Peek Freak

1977

No artwork available
NR

Jane Baker sees her husband off to work after a breakfast interspersed with sex on the kitchen table and then daydreams in her bath and offers herself to visitors – two lesbian saleswomen, a couple who strangely seem to ask to make use of her bedroom to make love (she joins in) and then two scenes missing from the 55-minute copy viewed – one with two repairmen and finally with the husband and his secretary

Dans la bouche de Sophie

1980