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Philippe Noiret, who plays the crusty yet profoundly philosophical village projectionist Alfredo, is considered one of the greatest French stars of his generation. Noiret's role in Cinema Paradiso as well as his portrayal of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in the Oscar-winning Il Postino (The Postman) have also made him a favorite in America.

Noiret spent his early years on the stage working in everything from nightclub caberet to the classics. He made his film debut in Agnes Varda's La Pointe Courte in 1956 and went on to work with Louis Malle in Zazie Dans Le Metro, Rene Clair in Tout L'Or Du Monde, George Franju in Therese Desqueyroux (garnering the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival), Vittorio de Sica in Women Times Seven and Yves Robert in Very Happy Alexander. He then found success in Hollywood starring in George Cukor's Justine and Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz.

Returning to France, he continued to demonstrate enormous versatility in such films as Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe, Robert Enrico's Le Vieux Fussil, Ted Kutcheff's Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers and Claude Zidi's My New Partner.

Noiret is perhaps best known in France for his long-standing association with director Bertrand Tavernier for whom he starred in The Clockmaker, Let Joy Reign Supreme, The Judge and the Assassin, A Week's Vacation, Coup de Torchon, Round Midnight and Life and Nothing But.

Other films include Ettore Scola's The Family, Claude Chabrol's Masques, Richard Lester's The Return of the Musketeers, Andre Techine's I Don't Kiss, Claude Berri's Uranus, the anthology Especially on Sunday, Philippe De Broca's Le Bossu and Roger Hanin's Soleil and most recently, Lulu Kreutz's Picnic, written by Yasmina Reza. He will next be seen in Bertrand Blier's Les Cotelettes.