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IMDbPro

With a Friend Like Harry...

Original title: Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien
  • 2000
  • R
  • 1h 57m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Sergi López in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
Trailer
Play trailer1:18
1 Video
71 Photos
ComedyDramaMystery

Harry knew Michel in high school; they meet again by accident, Harry inserts himself in Michel's life... and things take a sinister turn.Harry knew Michel in high school; they meet again by accident, Harry inserts himself in Michel's life... and things take a sinister turn.Harry knew Michel in high school; they meet again by accident, Harry inserts himself in Michel's life... and things take a sinister turn.

  • Director
    • Dominik Moll
  • Writers
    • Dominik Moll
    • Gilles Marchand
    • Francis Villain
  • Stars
    • Laurent Lucas
    • Sergi López
    • Mathilde Seigner
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    12K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Dominik Moll
    • Writers
      • Dominik Moll
      • Gilles Marchand
      • Francis Villain
    • Stars
      • Laurent Lucas
      • Sergi López
      • Mathilde Seigner
    • 115User reviews
    • 78Critic reviews
    • 75Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 7 wins & 15 nominations total

    Videos1

    With a Friend Like Harry
    Trailer 1:18
    Watch With a Friend Like Harry

    Photos71

    Sergi López and Mathilde Seigner in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Sophie Guillemin and Sergi López in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigner in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Laurent Lucas and Sergi López in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Sophie Guillemin in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Sergi López in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Director Dominik Moll
    Sergi López in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Sophie Guillemin in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    Sergi López and Mathilde Seigner in With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)
    With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Laurent Lucas
    Laurent Lucas
    • Michel
    Sergi López
    Sergi López
    • Harry Balestrero
    • (as Sergi Lopez)
    Mathilde Seigner
    Mathilde Seigner
    • Claire
    Sophie Guillemin
    Sophie Guillemin
    • Prune (Plum)
    Liliane Rovère
    Liliane Rovère
    • Michel's Mother
    Dominique Rozan
    Dominique Rozan
    • Michel's Father
    Michel Fau
    Michel Fau
    • Eric
    Victoire de Koster
    • Jeanne
    Laurie Caminata
    • Sarah
    Lorena Caminata
    • Iris
    • Director
      • Dominik Moll
    • Writers
      • Dominik Moll
      • Gilles Marchand
      • Francis Villain
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Miramax Films released U.S. version in theaters.
    • Quotes

      [on how to deal with difficult parents]

      Harry Ballestero: You have to overreact.

    • Crazy credits
      In the opening credit sequence, a straight-down aerial shot, the letters of the credits cast shadows on the ground (with realistic penumbras) as if they were actually suspended in mid-air.
    • Connections
      Edited into Making of 'Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien' (2001)
    • Soundtracks
      Ramona
      Music by Mabel Wayne

      Lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert

      Performed by Dolores del Rio

      Publishing 1927 by EMI Catalogue Partnership

      By permission of Editions EMI Catalogue Partnership France

    User reviews115

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Doctor Jekyll and mister Hyde in the French country...
    One of the first moments of this movie makes inevitably think of "Shining" (1980) by Stanley Kubrick and "Funny Games" (1997) by Michael Haneke: an aerial shot which follows a car on the highway. Inside it, a typical French family who goes on holiday in their country house hoping to find some peace. It's particularly true for the parents, Michel and his wife who seem to be all keyed up because of their restless children. On a rest area, Michel meets an old school friend: Harry who proposes Michel to come and spend a couple of days to his country house. The latter accepts. From the beginning, Harry appears as a charismatic and mysterious character. Who is he? Where does he come from? What does he want? We learn very few things about him or just vague facts. The director Dominik Voll preferred to leave high and dry Harry's origins and it's better this way because the spectator can imagine whatever he wants about him. Be that as it may, we can bring a beginning of answer to the third quoted question: Harry wishes Michel well and he's ready to do anything for this, even to kill...

    After a six-year absence (his last movie was "intimacy" in 1994), Dominik Voll made a successful comeback with "With a Friend like Harry" (2000). He seduced both the critics and the public and won 4 French Oscars in 2001 including Best Actor for Sergi Lopez. It's funny to note down that the basic idea for his second feature-length film came to him from a holiday memory when, just like Michel he met an old school friend which he hadn't seen for years. This trivial detail inspired him to focus his movie on the theme of the double. Besides, the first apparition of the two main protagonists happens in front of a mirror. Harry can be considered the incarnation of Michel's repressed drives and buried desires. In a way, he's what Michel would like to be or to do (consciously or not). I think there are numerous examples in Voll's opus and I will retain the three following points: Harry enjoys a perfect sexual life (eating a raw egg after an orgasm is good for health!) and perhaps Michel would like to know something similar to this. Then, Harry kills Michel's parents and every time the latter invites them for lunch or dinner, he has to fetch them: his father can't drive for medical reasons. Perhaps, Michel has hidden death wishes about his parents. At last, by congratulating Michel about the writings he made in high school, Harry probably wakes in Michel hidden desires of writer. Roughly, Harry wants to help his friend to advance in life, no matter what the price is.

    "With a friend like Harry" is Voll's second film in six years but his making is absolutely awesome. If the beginning of the movie turns out to be a little trite:how many times in cinema have we seen the trick of the helpful character invading a so far peaceful universe? But fortunately, once this moment passed, the rest makes forget this weakness. The movie adopts a slow rhythm without hastes and opts for the unexpected to play with the spectator's nerves. Dominik Voll weaves a more and more heavy even stifling atmosphere marked out by Michel's psychological changing who seems to become a little unrecognizable to his wife. Besides, she tells to Harry: "you've got a bad influence on Michel". This heavy atmosphere is reinforced by a precise and rigorous making which favors close-up shots and the length of quite numerous sequences. Overrall the director achieved a tour de force by mixing several cinema genres in a coherent story. What is close to comedy in the beginning of the story ends up turning to drama and thriller and the abrupt changes of tone follow on from each other with a diabolical logic. Moreover, Voll knows how to use black humor and certain moments give sometimes to the work an eccentric side.

    Needless to say that the cast is largely equal to the story. Already remarked in the invigorating "Western" (1997) by Manuel Poirier (whose he is one of his favorite actors), Sergi Lopez finds the role of his life in Harry. It will certainly be hard for him to equal his performance in the future.

    Highly recommended, "With a Friend like Harry" is a work that can be understood on several levels. It's a fascinating work and however we come out of the projection with a little uneasiness because of Michel's disturbing face. Harry's influence has altered him and he looks threatening as if he was going to commit something bad. As for Harry, in the domain of the pain in the neck characters, he is, in the long run, not exactly like Seraphin Lampion in "the adventures of Tintin"!
    helpful•32
    7
    • dbdumonteil
    • Apr 9, 2005

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 15, 2001 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Official site
      • Diaphana (France)
    • Languages
      • French
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Harry, He's Here to Help
    • Filming locations
      • Château Hôtel Mont-Royal, La Chapelle-en-Serval, Oise, France
    • Production companies
      • Canal+
      • Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
      • Diaphana Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,830,441
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $29,495
      • Apr 22, 2001
    • Gross worldwide
      • $15,476,522
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 57 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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