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La Belle Histoire

1992 film by Claude Lelouch

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ3165319 ↗
Source-derived summary

La Belle Histoire (1992) is a French film directed by Claude Lelouch, featuring Gérard Lanvin and Béatrice Dalle.

Synopsis

A film with an emphasis on visuals and music, the plot concerns characters who meet in present time, mainly the male gypsy Jesus, and the female thief and con-artist Odona, who share parallel experiences from lives 2000 years in the past. These stories are juxtaposed.

Cast

Gérard Lanvin : Jésus-Christ

Béatrice Dalle : Odona

Vincent Lindon : Simon Choulel

Marie-Sophie L. : Marie

Patrick Chesnais : Pierre Lhermitte

Anémone : Madame Desjardins

Isabelle Nanty : Isabelle

Jean Benguigui : Doga

Paul Préboist : The knit teacher

Élie Chouraqui : Pierre's associate

Amina Annabi : Jesus's sister

François Perrot : Marie's uncle

Jean-Michel Dupuis : Professor

Gérard Darmon : The biker

Amidou : The shepherd

Pierre Vernier : The director

Jean-Claude Dreyfus : The inspector

Jacques Gamblin : The young cop

Patrick Edlinger : Himself

Patrice Laffont : Himself

Marie Sara : Herself

Hubert Reeves : Himself

Laurent Weil : Himself

Production

Filming took place in Nîmes.

Events

Prior to the film's release, in February 1992 a 70 mm copy of the film was projected onto a 300 m wide screen mounted on the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

Editorial summary

“La Belle Histoire” enters the record as 1992 film by Claude Lelouch. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Belle, Histoire and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1992-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Belle, Histoire and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“La Belle Histoire” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Belle, Histoire and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3165319. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992 and 2000.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “La Belle Histoire”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow La Belle Histoire primary sources, La Belle Histoire archive and Belle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “La Belle Histoire”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “La Belle Histoire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.