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Daniel Auteuil
This offbeat-looking player with a piercing gaze, is perhaps best known in the USA for his galvanizing, heavily made-up performance as Yves Montand's buffoonish and pathetic nephew Ugolin in Claude Berri's diptych "Jean de Florette" (1985) and "Manon of the Spring" (1986). Hailed by Toronto Sun critic Bruce Kirkland as "the most underappreciated French actor of his generation," Daniel Auteuil is equally at home portraying contemporary figures or historical personages. He combines the skill and grace of a leading man with the wide range of a character player and regardless of the material, proves completely compelling.