Martin Provost

Directing

Martin Provost

Born

1957-05-13 (69)

Place of birth

Brest, Finistère, France

Known for

Directing

Credits

26 titles

Martin Provost is a French film director, writer and actor. He wrote and directed such films as Séraphine and Le ventre de Juliette.

Known for

How to Be a Good Wife poster
5.7

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running the housekeeping school of Bitche in Alsace for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become the perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to be subservient to their husband. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy and has to take her responsibilities. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, André, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.

How to Be a Good Wife

2020

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe poster
6.3

When French painter Pierre Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny, he didn’t know this self-proclaimed aristocrat would become the cornerstone of his life and work. From this moment, she became more than just a muse for the “painter of happiness”, appearing in more than a third of his work. Together, they reached their artistic fulfillment thanks to a colourful love, different from the standards of their time, nurturing the great mystery around their relationship. Based on a true story.

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe

2024

The Midwife poster
6.1

Claire is a midwife and has devoted her life to others. At a moment when she is preoccupied by the imminent closure of the maternity clinic where she works, her life is further turned upside down when Béatrice, her father's former mistress, turns up on the scene. Béatrice is a capricious and selfish woman, Claire's exact opposite.

The Midwife

2017

Au plaisir de Dieu poster
9.0

Over several generations, the story of an aristocratic French family spanning the 20th Century, from the two World Wars to the social and political upheavals of May 1968. Facing adversity, old Duke Sosthène tries to keep traditions alive.

Au plaisir de Dieu

1977

Alice poster
7.2

In Paris, the student protests of December 1986. Alice Lazard is having her own revolution, expressing herself and trying to confront a world whose aggression and hatred ignite her fierce will to live and her madness. Or so we imagine. Swept away by her colorful language, her youth, her vivacity, her humor, we remain fascinated, and yet she expresses so much despair in the slow destruction of her relationship with a man... Romain, the creator of this character, is overwhelmed by her. He projects himself into another woman, Alice Lazard, brunette, warm, and aggressive. She comes to present herself to Romain for a role in his next film, but she doesn't understand his reactions at all. All of this unfolds under the sometimes amused, sometimes irritated gaze of Jean, the film's editor.

Alice

1988

Love Lessons poster
NR

On the eve of retirement, Émile delivers one final lesson about love and literature, urging his students to become the poets of their own lives. But is he still in love himself? Unable to answer, he returns home only to discover that his wife has left him. Émile must now live by the very words he’s been preaching, and thanks to unexpected encounters his life is turned upside down, helping him to reinvent himself.

Love Lessons

2026

Film credits

1980s · 3 titles

1970s · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

How to Be a Good Wife poster
5.7

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running the housekeeping school of Bitche in Alsace for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become the perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to be subservient to their husband. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy and has to take her responsibilities. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, André, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.

How to Be a Good Wife

2020

How to Be a Good Wife poster
5.7

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running the housekeeping school of Bitche in Alsace for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become the perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to be subservient to their husband. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy and has to take her responsibilities. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, André, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.

How to Be a Good Wife

2020

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe poster
6.3

When French painter Pierre Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny, he didn’t know this self-proclaimed aristocrat would become the cornerstone of his life and work. From this moment, she became more than just a muse for the “painter of happiness”, appearing in more than a third of his work. Together, they reached their artistic fulfillment thanks to a colourful love, different from the standards of their time, nurturing the great mystery around their relationship. Based on a true story.

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe

2024

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe poster
6.3

When French painter Pierre Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny, he didn’t know this self-proclaimed aristocrat would become the cornerstone of his life and work. From this moment, she became more than just a muse for the “painter of happiness”, appearing in more than a third of his work. Together, they reached their artistic fulfillment thanks to a colourful love, different from the standards of their time, nurturing the great mystery around their relationship. Based on a true story.

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe

2024

The Midwife poster
6.1

Claire is a midwife and has devoted her life to others. At a moment when she is preoccupied by the imminent closure of the maternity clinic where she works, her life is further turned upside down when Béatrice, her father's former mistress, turns up on the scene. Béatrice is a capricious and selfish woman, Claire's exact opposite.

The Midwife

2017

The Midwife poster
6.1

Claire is a midwife and has devoted her life to others. At a moment when she is preoccupied by the imminent closure of the maternity clinic where she works, her life is further turned upside down when Béatrice, her father's former mistress, turns up on the scene. Béatrice is a capricious and selfish woman, Claire's exact opposite.

The Midwife

2017

Love Lessons poster
NR

On the eve of retirement, Émile delivers one final lesson about love and literature, urging his students to become the poets of their own lives. But is he still in love himself? Unable to answer, he returns home only to discover that his wife has left him. Émile must now live by the very words he’s been preaching, and thanks to unexpected encounters his life is turned upside down, helping him to reinvent himself.

Love Lessons

2026

Love Lessons poster
NR

On the eve of retirement, Émile delivers one final lesson about love and literature, urging his students to become the poets of their own lives. But is he still in love himself? Unable to answer, he returns home only to discover that his wife has left him. Émile must now live by the very words he’s been preaching, and thanks to unexpected encounters his life is turned upside down, helping him to reinvent himself.

Love Lessons

2026

Séraphine poster
6.7

The tragic story of French naïve painter Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (1864-1942), a humble servant who becomes a gifted self-taught painter. Discovered by prominent critic and collector William Uhde, she came to prominence between the wars grouped with other naïve painters like Henri Rouseau only to descend into madness and obscurity with the onset of the Great Depression and World War II.

Séraphine

2008

Séraphine poster
6.7

The tragic story of French naïve painter Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (1864-1942), a humble servant who becomes a gifted self-taught painter. Discovered by prominent critic and collector William Uhde, she came to prominence between the wars grouped with other naïve painters like Henri Rouseau only to descend into madness and obscurity with the onset of the Great Depression and World War II.

Séraphine

2008

Violette poster
5.9

Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.

Violette

2013

Violette poster
5.9

Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.

Violette

2013

Le ventre de Juliette poster
10.0

The 20-year-old Juliette tries to come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, despite a lack of support from the father of the child and from her mother.

Le ventre de Juliette

2002

Le ventre de Juliette poster
10.0

The 20-year-old Juliette tries to come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, despite a lack of support from the father of the child and from her mother.

Le ventre de Juliette

2002

The Long Falling poster
5.2

After murdering her abusive husband, a woman on the run develops a friendship with another widow.

The Long Falling

2011

Tortilla y Cinema poster
4.0

Benjamin Ballon wants to be a filmmaker, and has devoted a large part of his life for the past few years to getting to the point of filming an independent movie. He has been encouraged by Carmen Maura (playing herself), an established star, who has agreed to appear in his first film, and it is her level-headedness, calmness, and general good sense that keeps the project moving along, despite Benjamin's inexperience and a very temperamental male lead. On one occasion when the male lead is hours late for a shoot, her calm is the only thing which keeps the crew from walking out. The title comes from Maura's habit of bringing homemade tortillas to meetings, and using them to get her way.

Tortilla y Cinema

1997

Tortilla y Cinema poster
4.0

Benjamin Ballon wants to be a filmmaker, and has devoted a large part of his life for the past few years to getting to the point of filming an independent movie. He has been encouraged by Carmen Maura (playing herself), an established star, who has agreed to appear in his first film, and it is her level-headedness, calmness, and general good sense that keeps the project moving along, despite Benjamin's inexperience and a very temperamental male lead. On one occasion when the male lead is hours late for a shoot, her calm is the only thing which keeps the crew from walking out. The title comes from Maura's habit of bringing homemade tortillas to meetings, and using them to get her way.

Tortilla y Cinema

1997