Romain Goupil

Directing

Romain Goupil

Born 1951-07-12 · Paris, France

Politically committed to the left, Romain Goupil, born in 1951, is the most eloquent representative of the spirit of the revolution of May 1968. From his first feature in 1982, Mourir à 30 ans (1982) to his latest to date Les mains en l' air (2010), he has managed to remain faithful to his ideals, quite a feat if you think of all of his fellow revolutionaries who have changed sides, lured by money and/or power. His films, whether documentaries or fiction, have failed -with one or two exceptions - to draw large audience but they will remain a mirror of a whole generation.

Acting credits

Fat Girl poster
6.2

Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.

Fat Girl

2001

Godard Cinema poster
5.6

Jean-Luc Godard is synonymous with cinema. With the release of Breathless in 1960, he established himself overnight as a cinematic rebel and symbol for the era's progressive and anti-war youth. Sixty-two years and 140 films later, Godard is among the most renowned artists of all time, taught in every film school yet still shrouded in mystery. One of the founders of the French New Wave, political agitator, revolutionary misanthrope, film theorist and critic, the list of his descriptors goes on and on. Godard Cinema offers an opportunity for film lovers to look back at his career and the subjects and themes that obsessed him, while paying tribute to the ineffable essence of the most revered French director of all time.

Godard Cinema

2023

A Christmas Tale poster
6.8

When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.

A Christmas Tale

2008

Godard Mon Amour poster
6.6

In 1967, during the making of “La Chinoise,” film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 19-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and marries her.

Godard Mon Amour

2017

On the Road in France poster
NR

Fifty years after the events of May 68, Dany Cohn-Bendit and Romain Goupil have decided to start a journey across France. In this "road movie" they explore the territories - at times bewildering - of the Republic. Observing, listening, debating, discovering the state of the country. Its crises and its hopes. Its ordinary heroes, its gravediggers, its innovators...ON THE ROAD IN FRANCE or the tour and detours in France of two old children of 68.

On the Road in France

2018

Room 666 poster
6.6

During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders asked a number of global film directors to, one at a time, go into a hotel room, turn on the camera, and answer a simple question: "What is the future of cinema?"

Room 666

1985

Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille

2026

Venus Beauty Institute poster
5.9

Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young co-worker, Marie, and a much older widowed client, despite their obvious rapport.

Venus Beauty Institute

1999

Purely Coincidental poster
9.0

A handful of student revolutionaries from the Seventies meet up 30 years later to plan a robbery. This is not entirely correct, because they are friends, anyway, and always have been. They play cards together and go to each others’ birthday parties, have wives and children and probably mortgages. Romain Goupil’s film appears to be a throwback to the experimental days of cinema verite. Either that or it’s a home movie, shot with a video camera, to an improvised script or no script at all.

Purely Coincidental

2002

His Mother's Eyes poster
5.4

A writer suffering from a lack of inspiration sneaks his way into the lives of a star television journalist and his lead ballerina daughter to write, unbeknownst to them, a non-authorized biography. Meanwhile, in Brittany, twenty-year-old Bruno, who lives with his parents, doesn't yet know the consequences that this story will have on his existence...

His Mother's Eyes

2011

René Vautier, le rebelle poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

René Vautier, le rebelle

2000

Marguerite Duras and the '68ers poster
6.0

Here Duras assumes a more distant role, less an interviewer than an invested documentarian. Her questions precede footage of her main subject, the sixteen-year-old Romain Goupil, recently excluded from the lycée, among his peers and fellow student revolutonaries. After we see them discuss the complexities of their position and deal with internal dissent, Duras asks Romain if he ever forgets how young he is. Romain replies with a grin: “Totally.”

Marguerite Duras and the '68ers

1968

Les Jours venus poster
3.2

The day comes when your children look at your past as if you had fought at Verdun. The day comes when an official letter questions your age and your status and pushes you toward retirement. The day comes when your latest screenplay idea does not turn into a film. The day comes when your new bank manager urgently summons you. The day comes when you remember meeting Her during the war in Sarajevo. The day comes when you begin all your sentences with “before.” The day comes when all your time is measured out, the children grow up, your parents grow weak. The day comes when you meet a young woman who loves old men: the old married ones.

Les Jours venus

2015

Hands in the Air poster
5.9

March 22, 2067. At dawn of life, Milana remembers her life, when she was a young Chechen immigrant in Paris, struggling for a better life along with her school friends.

Hands in the Air

2010

À mort la mort ! poster
4.5

The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A MORT LA MORT is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past.

À mort la mort !

1999

Les murs porteurs poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Les murs porteurs

2008

Rien dans les poches poster
4.3

25 years of the life of Marie, a Parisian party girl, first teenager leaving her mother at 17, then short star of the song, and finally mother of a teenage girl, Esther, who flees as she fled her mother.

Rien dans les poches

2008

The Easy Way Out poster
5.1

Patrick, a travel agent in his early 30s, lives with Arthur, an immigration lawyer; but for a long time, Patrick has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of their bedroom. His younger brother, Tony, plans to marry his high school sweetheart but is having an affair that is far more satisfying than his relationship with his fiancee. Their older brother, Ryan, is divorced, living at home and working at his parents’ hopelessly unprofitable men’s clothing store. And McCauley soon makes achingly clear that the parents’ marriage is far from happy.

The Easy Way Out

2015

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mon homme

2004

Half a Life poster
5.9

Michel Recanati was a militant leader in the May, 1968 riots in Paris, organizing many groups to meet, discuss, and act on leftist principles both before and after the disturbances. He was imprisoned for a short while in 1973. Disillusioned after the failure of the demonstrations and the death of the only woman he had loved, his life seems to have changed from a period of hope and activism to one of bottomless despair. His friend, Romain Goupil wrote and directed this biographical documentary. Death at 30 received the 1982 Cannes Film Festival's Golden Camera Award for "Best First Feature-Length Film."

Half a Life

1982

Gustave Courbet: The Origins of His World poster
6.0

Gustave Courbet defied the conventions of classical French painting to become an innovator of Realism. This documentary by filmmaker Romain Goupil explores Courbet's life and work, revealing the fiery spirit that drove him to lead rather than follow.

Gustave Courbet: The Origins of His World

2007

10 mai 1981, le jour du grand soir poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

10 mai 1981, le jour du grand soir

2021

A Letter to L... poster
6.3

She was 18. They were in love and lived together for ten years. 20 years later, he receives a letter from her. L is very ill. He grabs hold of his camera and films while trying to make her talk about other things, about cinema and what’s become of those political struggles…

A Letter to L...

1994

Young Cinema: Godard and His Emulators poster
6.0

Influenced and inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, some young french directors (Jean Eustache, Francis Leroi, Jean-Michel Barjol, Romain Goupil, Luc Moullet) are talking about their problems in producing less expensive and more free films in the french industry of cinema of the 60's.

Young Cinema: Godard and His Emulators

1967

Behind the camera

On the Road in France poster
NR

Fifty years after the events of May 68, Dany Cohn-Bendit and Romain Goupil have decided to start a journey across France. In this "road movie" they explore the territories - at times bewildering - of the Republic. Observing, listening, debating, discovering the state of the country. Its crises and its hopes. Its ordinary heroes, its gravediggers, its innovators...ON THE ROAD IN FRANCE or the tour and detours in France of two old children of 68.

On the Road in France

2018

Lest We Forget poster
7.0

A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

Lest We Forget

1991

Purely Coincidental poster
9.0

A handful of student revolutionaries from the Seventies meet up 30 years later to plan a robbery. This is not entirely correct, because they are friends, anyway, and always have been. They play cards together and go to each others’ birthday parties, have wives and children and probably mortgages. Romain Goupil’s film appears to be a throwback to the experimental days of cinema verite. Either that or it’s a home movie, shot with a video camera, to an improvised script or no script at all.

Purely Coincidental

2002

Les Jours venus poster
3.2

The day comes when your children look at your past as if you had fought at Verdun. The day comes when an official letter questions your age and your status and pushes you toward retirement. The day comes when your latest screenplay idea does not turn into a film. The day comes when your new bank manager urgently summons you. The day comes when you remember meeting Her during the war in Sarajevo. The day comes when you begin all your sentences with “before.” The day comes when all your time is measured out, the children grow up, your parents grow weak. The day comes when you meet a young woman who loves old men: the old married ones.

Les Jours venus

2015

Les Jours venus poster
3.2

The day comes when your children look at your past as if you had fought at Verdun. The day comes when an official letter questions your age and your status and pushes you toward retirement. The day comes when your latest screenplay idea does not turn into a film. The day comes when your new bank manager urgently summons you. The day comes when you remember meeting Her during the war in Sarajevo. The day comes when you begin all your sentences with “before.” The day comes when all your time is measured out, the children grow up, your parents grow weak. The day comes when you meet a young woman who loves old men: the old married ones.

Les Jours venus

2015

2 Victory Square, Kyiv poster
9.0

24 February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine. Romain Goupil leaves for Kyiv in a hurry. It was an imperative decision for him to go and support the Ukrainian resistance by filming to bear witness. He left without knowing if he would find a family ready to welcome him to share with them life day after day under the threat of bombing. Finally, the Kyiv circus welcomed him. Romain spent a month in this closed environment imposed by the war on men and animals.

2 Victory Square, Kyiv

2023

Hands in the Air poster
5.9

March 22, 2067. At dawn of life, Milana remembers her life, when she was a young Chechen immigrant in Paris, struggling for a better life along with her school friends.

Hands in the Air

2010

Hands in the Air poster
5.9

March 22, 2067. At dawn of life, Milana remembers her life, when she was a young Chechen immigrant in Paris, struggling for a better life along with her school friends.

Hands in the Air

2010

Maman poster
6.0

Lulu is released from prison. Determined to fulfill her dream, find her kids, those of her best friend who remained locked up and go very far. The former inmate will do everything to carry out the "heist" that will get her the money.

Maman

1990

Maman poster
6.0

Lulu is released from prison. Determined to fulfill her dream, find her kids, those of her best friend who remained locked up and go very far. The former inmate will do everything to carry out the "heist" that will get her the money.

Maman

1990

À mort la mort ! poster
4.5

The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A MORT LA MORT is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past.

À mort la mort !

1999

À mort la mort ! poster
4.5

The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A MORT LA MORT is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past.

À mort la mort !

1999

No artwork available
NR

Father Goupil, a former operator, now raises pheasants in Brittany.

Father Goupil

1980

Shadow Dance poster
10.0

The French intelligence agency plants Xavier, a former militant leftist, into a fascist organisation called Janus, against whom Xavier bears an old grudge.

Shadow Dance

1983

Shadow Dance poster
10.0

The French intelligence agency plants Xavier, a former militant leftist, into a fascist organisation called Janus, against whom Xavier bears an old grudge.

Shadow Dance

1983

No artwork available
10.0

Yakine, bright student with algerian origins, wears the hijab. Her family and her school want to understand but she refuses to talk about it.

Sa vie à elle

1995

Half a Life poster
5.9

Michel Recanati was a militant leader in the May, 1968 riots in Paris, organizing many groups to meet, discuss, and act on leftist principles both before and after the disturbances. He was imprisoned for a short while in 1973. Disillusioned after the failure of the demonstrations and the death of the only woman he had loved, his life seems to have changed from a period of hope and activism to one of bottomless despair. His friend, Romain Goupil wrote and directed this biographical documentary. Death at 30 received the 1982 Cannes Film Festival's Golden Camera Award for "Best First Feature-Length Film."

Half a Life

1982

Half a Life poster
5.9

Michel Recanati was a militant leader in the May, 1968 riots in Paris, organizing many groups to meet, discuss, and act on leftist principles both before and after the disturbances. He was imprisoned for a short while in 1973. Disillusioned after the failure of the demonstrations and the death of the only woman he had loved, his life seems to have changed from a period of hope and activism to one of bottomless despair. His friend, Romain Goupil wrote and directed this biographical documentary. Death at 30 received the 1982 Cannes Film Festival's Golden Camera Award for "Best First Feature-Length Film."

Half a Life

1982

Gustave Courbet: The Origins of His World poster
6.0

Gustave Courbet defied the conventions of classical French painting to become an innovator of Realism. This documentary by filmmaker Romain Goupil explores Courbet's life and work, revealing the fiery spirit that drove him to lead rather than follow.

Gustave Courbet: The Origins of His World

2007

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Souviens-toi du futur!

2024

Hans Hartung, la fureur de peindre poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Hans Hartung, la fureur de peindre

2019

A Letter to L... poster
6.3

She was 18. They were in love and lived together for ten years. 20 years later, he receives a letter from her. L is very ill. He grabs hold of his camera and films while trying to make her talk about other things, about cinema and what’s become of those political struggles…

A Letter to L...

1994

A Letter to L... poster
6.3

She was 18. They were in love and lived together for ten years. 20 years later, he receives a letter from her. L is very ill. He grabs hold of his camera and films while trying to make her talk about other things, about cinema and what’s become of those political struggles…

A Letter to L...

1994

No artwork available
NR

Storm in Brittany. Destruction of a pheasant farm. Reflections between father and son on the future.

Je sais pas, je sais pas

1988