Denis Lavant (born June 17, 1961) is a French film actor known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax. Lavant has played the lead role in all but one of Carax's films. Lavant is also known for his starring roles in Claire Denis' Beau Travail and Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely, which features Carax in a supporting role.

Filmography

• 2026Erratics — Lucien Le Saint
• 2026In All My Journeys I Am Returning
• 2026Inquisitions — L'inquisiteur
• 2026Redoubt — Karl-Göran Persson
• 2026The End — (voice)
• 2025Bacon-Freud, face à face — Voix-off
• 2025Demons to Diamonds — The prisoner
• 2025Hotel Fantasma
• 2025Hyacinthe — Reda
• 2025In the Land of Arto — Rob
• 2025In the Name of Blood — Jacques
• 2025L’OSSERVATORE DELL’EST
• 2025Sibyl — (Archive footage)
• 2025The Stranger — Salamano
• 2024Fracas — Writer
• 2024It's Not Me — Monsieur Merde
• 2024The Boy Who Owns the World — Kasimir
• 2024Two Night Owls in Paris — Le bouquiniste
• 2023Body of Crime
• 2023Hood Witch — Jules
• 2023Human Flowers of Flesh — Galoup
• 2023Miserable Miracle — Narrator (French)
• 2023Petit Papa Noël va mourir aujourd'hui
• 2023Poisson rouge — Père de Guillaume
• 2023The Green Eyes
• 2023Thunder Voice — Prophet
• 2022All Effort of Men — Narrator (voice)
• 2022Aymeline — Franco Fontane
• 2022Le discours — Le politicien
• 2022South Sentinel — Commandant de Royer
• 2022X14
• 2021Night of the Kings — Silence
• 2021The Nipple Whisperer — Maurice Sanders
• 2021Tralala — Climby
• 2020Gagarine — Gérard
• 2020Silver Skates — Fourier
• 2020The Blue Star — Le Narrateur
• 2019Figurant
• 2019Girls with Balls — Barman
• 2019Silent Streams
• 2019The Bra — Kamal
• 2019The Escapade — Jacques
• 2019The Mountain — Jack
• The Traveller — Alberto
• 2019Vous êtes jeunes, vous êtes beaux — Monsieur Loyal
• 2019Who the Fuck Are You — Psychiatrist
• 20183 Days in Quiberon — Fisherman Poet
• 2018Cornelius, the Howling Miller — Doctor de Chomo
• 2018Fan Club — Damien
• 2018My Intelligent Comedy — Allen
• 2018One Nation, One King — Marat
• 2018Scaramouche Scaramouche — Scaramouche
• 2018The Emperor of Paris — Maillard
• 2018The Night Eats the World — Alfred
• 2016Boris Without Beatrice — L'Inconnu
• 2016History's Future — Lottery Ticket Seller
• 2016Kazarken: As We Dig — Chiron, le centaure
• 2016Louis-Ferdinand Céline — Louis-Ferdinand Céline
• Midnight Sun — Pierre Carnot
• 201521 Nights with Pattie — André
• 2015Austerlitz — Jacques Austerlitz
• 2015Dark Forests — Voice
• 2015Eva Doesn't Sleep — Koenig
• 2015Graziella — Antoine
• 2015Me and Kaminski — Karl-Ludwig
• 2015Pitchipoï — Pierre Schulmann
• 2014Journey to the West — Dragon
• 2014Le mystère des jonquilles — Sam
• 2014Ogaden
• 2014The Iron Ivan — Eugene de Paris
• 2013Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas — The Theologist
• 2013Je sens plus la vitesse
• 2013Jiminy — Otto Hoffmann
• 2013Les Grandes Marées — Marc
• 2013Marcel Dassault, l'homme au pardessus — Marcel Dassault
• 2013Marussia — Clochard
• 2013Tired of Being Handsome
• 2012Eye of the Astronomer — Jean Kepler
• 2012Holy Motors — Mr. Oscar / Banker / Beggar / Father / Accordionist / Killer
• 2012Morning Star — Elliot
• 2011Atlantika
• 2011Hitler in Hollywood — Denis Lavant
• 2011Hop-o'-My-Thumb — The ogre
• 2011My Little Princess — Ernst
• 2010Je, François Villon, voleur, assassin, poète — Bezon
• 2009Hymn to Merde — Merde
• 2009Les Cowboys n'ont pas peur de mourir — (voice)
• 2009Les Williams
• The Little Murders of Agatha Christie — André Custe
• 2009The Lonely
• 2009The Temptation of St. Tony — Count Korzybski
• 2008Captain Ahab — Capitaine Achab
• 2008Mister Lonely — Charlie Chaplin
• 2008Tokyo! — Merde' (segment "Merde")
• 2007Happy New Year London — Gerrard Ames
• 2005Wild Camp — Blaise
• 2004A Very Long Engagement — Six-Soux
• 2004Language Does Not Lie — Narrator (voice)
• 2004Luminal — Ryu
• 2003Correspondances: Dostoïevski — reader
• 2002La merveilleuse odyssée de l'idiot Toboggan — (voice)
• 2001Married/Unmarried — Love
• 2001Şoför — The Driver
• 2000Beau Travail — Galoup
• 2000Deep in the Woods — Stephane
• 2000La Squale — Le joker
• 1999Tuvalu — Anton
• 1998Don Juan — Pierrot
• 1998Le monde à l'envers — Yann Kerebel
• 1998Melody for a Hustler — L'auto-stoppeur
• 1997Wild Animals — Emil
• 1995Visiblement je vous aime — Denis
• 1994The Chess Game — Max
• 1993De force avec d'autres — Denis
• 1991The Lovers on the Bridge — Alex
• 1990Mona and I — Pierre
• 1989Once Around the Park — Berville
• 1986Mauvais Sang — Alex
• 1985Going and Coming Back — Simon Lerner's patient
• 1984Boy Meets Girl — Alex
• 1984Long Live Life — Caviar delivery man
• 1983After Midnight — (voice)
• 1983Entre Nous — Un militaire
• 1983The Wounded Man — Wanderer
• 1982L'Ombre sur la plage
• 1982Les Misérables — Montparnasse
• 1982Paris Ficelle — Joe
• 7 jours 4000 ans — (Voix)
• Dante's Divine Comedy — Narrator / Virgil / Dante
• Fol
• La nuit du vivant, voyage au cœur de la pourriture — Narrateur
• Makunaíma XXI
• Que demande le peuple
• The Countess of Monte Cristo
• The Rope
• Waster — Waster

Appearances as themselves (13)

• The Inquisition — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 2024Walter Benjamin, el aura del camino — Self
• 2023L'Impossible Monsieur Simon — Self
• 2022Tell Me Iggy — Self
• 2017Gray House — Self
• 2014Men Show Movies & Women Their Breasts — Self (uncredited)
• 2014Mr. X — Self
• 2013Biette — Self
• 2013DRIVE IN Holy Motors — Self
• 2013En ningún lugar, Don Luis Buñuel — Self
• Square — Self
• 2005Une année au front : dans les coulisses de "Un long dimanche de fiançailles" — Self
• 2003Mark Rothko (1903-1970) : un humaniste abstrait — Self - Narrator (voice)