Jacques Boudet

A mainstay of Robert Guédiguian's stock company since 1985, Jacques Boudet has notably featured as Ariane Ascaride's disabled Spanish migrant father in "'Til Death Us Do Part," her alcoholic patient in "Marie-Jo and Her 2 Lovers" and her eponymous parent in "My Father Is an Engineer." Yet he was most effective as Pascale Roberts's husband in "Marius et Jeannette" and "La Ville est tranquille," slices of Marseilles life whose authenticity was greatly enhanced by the naturalism of the acting. Boudet was long established on stage and screen before his collaboration with Guédiguian, often taking minor roles for such leading lights as Philippe de Broca, Claude Lelouch and Bertrand Tavernier, as well as more contentious talents like Andrzej Zulawski, Bertrand Blier and Étienne Chatiliez. He also landed occasional leads, as one of the friends forced to work in an abattoir in "Le Cri du cochon," the lawyer helping doctor André Dussollier turn a desolate chateau into a chic hotel in "Un Air si pur..." and the bistro owner hiring a black waitress in Melvin Van Peebles's satire on 1960s liberalism, "Bellyful." But Boudet's forte remains character roles in dissections of the contemporary scene like William Klein's consumer satire, "The Model Couple," Luc Besson's assassin thriller, "Nikita" and Claude Chabrol's corruption exposé, "The Comedy of Power," as well as period gems like Volker Schlöndorff's Proust adaptation, "Swann in Love," and Jean Becker's paean to the post-Great War countryside, "Les Enfants du marais."