
Hippolyte Girardot
Biography
Hippolyte Girardot (born Frédéric Girardot; 10 October 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter.
A loner, Hippolyte Girardot set out to be an illustrator. He dreamt of working as production designer on the film set and tempted his chance at the entrance exam to the Arts Déco. While there, he was offered the project of a series of shorts working with a group of adolescents from the suburbs in a workshop setting. Even if he made his first appearance on the silver screen as the son of actor Claude Rich in "John's Wife" by Yannick Bellon, who was a friend of his mother's, he still had no intention of becoming an actor and continued to take on the various jobs proposed.
Hippolyte Girardot developed a taste for acting while filming "The Destiny of Juliette" (1983) by Aline Issermann, and again with the same director for "L'Amant magnifique". He got his first nods from the profession when he was nominated for Most Promising Young Actor in 1985 for "Le Bon Plaisir", continuing his career with Godard ("First Name: Carmen") and other A film projects, notably in "Fort Saganne" and "Jean de Florette II" in which he plays a school teacher in love with Emmanuelle Beart. His film acclaim arrived in 1990 with "A World Without Pity", a disenchanted observation of society by Eric Rochant; his character Hippo resonated with an entire generation: ironically aimless yet charming.
The following year, Girardot landed the lead role playing a photographer taken hostage in Lebanon in "Out of Life" by Maroun Bagdadi. He incarnated the mysterious seducer ("After Love", "The Scent of Yvonne"), but more often found himself performing in comedies: completely crazy in "Barjo" and unemployed in "Long Live the Republic" (1997) by close collaborator, Eric Rochant.
After working for the television for a few years, his return to film was acclaimed in "Rashevski's Tango" in 2003. Joining the Desplechin film universe, Hippolyte Girardot gave notable performances as a business man in "Playing 'In the Company of Men'", a crooked lawyer involved in drugs in "Kings and Queen" (2004) and Anne Consigny's husband in "A Christmas Tale". Other renowned directors with whom he has collaborated include Pascal Bonitzer and Pascale Ferran ("Lady Chatterley"), and in 2006, he juggled a formidable acting career, appearing in no less than six films. After his role as a shaddy doctor in "Crime Is Our Business", his roles began to become more and more original: the alter ego of Jerome Clement in "Later" by Amos Gitai and Nanni Moretti's partner in "Quiet Chaos". He had a spell at co-directing with Nobuhiro Suwa for the film "Yuki & Nina", a touchy look at childhood that was presented at the Directors' Fortnight in 2009. Continuing to accept roles in films with a political message, he will appear in "Les Mains en l'air", which denounces Italian fascism in the year 2067, and take the lead in the dark comedy "Dernier étage gauche gauche" in which he plays a bailiff taken hostage in a housing projects building, both films to be released in 2010.
Acting (102 movies)

Babyphone
2023

Paris Je T'aime
2006

Lady Chatterley
2006

Fort Saganne
1984

Manon of the Spring
1986

The Astronaut
2023

Quiet Chaos
2008

One Day You'll Understand
2008

Premonition
2006

A Christmas Tale
2008

Flight of the Red Balloon
2007

Jump Tomorrow
2001

Modigliani
2004

Spy(ies)
2009

The Dinner Guest
2007

Love Without Pity
1989

The Rashevski Tango
2003

When I Was 5, I Killed Myself
1994

Resolution 819
2008

Kings & Queen
2004

Park Benches
2009

L'amant magnifique
1986

The Perfume of Yvonne
1994

Made in Paris
2006

La femme de Jean
1974

The Moustache
2005

The Conquest
2011

Out of Life
1991

My Place in the Sun
2007

House of 9
2005

Yuki & Nina
2009

Sleeping Sickness
2011

Descent Into Hell
1986

Hands in the Air
2010

Barjo
1992

Où avais-je la tête ?
2008

Crime Is Our Business
2008

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
2012

Le Bon Plaisir
1984

Capital
2012

1914 the Glorious Summer
1996

Follow My Gaze
1986

Playing 'In the Company of Men'
2003

Virus au paradis
2003

An Open Heart
2012

The Edge
2011

Top Floor Left Wing
2010

Haute Cuisine
2012

Trois couples en quête d'orages
2005

Toxic Affair
1993

The Girl in the Air
1992

Love After Love
1992

Drôle de genre
2003

Life of Riley
2014

Kidon
2013

Off and Running
2008

Paradise Calling
1988

La rupture
2013

Jésus
1999

To Life
2014

Si j'étais elle
2004

Bird People
2014

La Chartreuse de Parme
2012

Le Voyage en pyjama
2024

The Girl King
2015

Just a Couple of Days
2024

Vivre c'est mieux que mourir
2006

First Name: Carmen
1983

L'Amour ou presque
1985

Le Destin de Juliette
1983

Des gens qui passent
2013

The Target
1997

Adèle et Kamel
2005

La face
2016

The Robin Hoods of the Poor
2011

Ismael's Ghosts
2017

Long Live the Republic
1997

L'Aurore boréale
2013

Benedict Ironbreaker: The Red Taxis
2014

L'Oiseau rare
2001

Le Viol
2017

On the Sly
2018

Where I've Never Lived
2017

The Patriots
1994

L'Amour nu
1981

French Lovers
1985

Mama Weed
2020

An Irrepressible Woman
2020

Incontrôlable
2006

Nos amis les flics
2004

The French Dispatch
2021

Inspector Blunder
1980

L'Affaire Ben Barka
2008

Un an
2006

The Black Book
2020

That's Fine
2021

Un moment d'inattention
1986

Gustave Courbet: The Origins of His World
2007

Les Héritiers
2021

Two Pianos
2025
Directing (1 movie)
| Title | Year | Job | 
|---|---|---|
| Yuki & Nina | 2009 | Writer |