This is easily the best film I’ve seen in some time. A French comedy–and lo these many years I’d assumed that beast to be mythical–about tastes aesthetic and romantic. Every character displays some worldview or some kind of love which collides with some other character’s, and the film is a dry sometimes cruelly blunt evocation of how we don’t understand one another. But it also studiously avoids taking sides–almost no character is simply mocked for bad taste.
In my favorite scene, a crass businessman is trying to woo an actress he’s fallen for, sitting in a crowd of her artsy friends, telling crude jokes which all involve shit or vomit. He completely misses their scorn, so rapt in his infatuation…. And although the actor never betrays the crassness of the character, never seeks our sympathies by softening his character’s faults or making him more likable, there is such compassion for his desire, such appreciation for his appreciation.
I also loved the speed of the film–scenes of 2 minutes, or less, and crosscutting between a host of characters. It feels like a farce in form, but plays much more subtly as a character study.
Highly recommended.
Yes, well worth while. In the scene Mike mentions, the actors also pretend Ibsen plays are comedies and continue with the pretense until the one of their number stops them. But it is never genuinely mean-spirited, and you never squirm (unlike some of the classic Ricky Gervais and Larry David moments). The other great scene is when the actress goes to tell the businessman that he is being taken advantage of in buying paintings, that he is only doing it to impress her, and you realize, just as she does, that we have been underestimating the businessman: it is not all a pretense for him. It is the moment at which he ceases to be the sap.
This is the kind of movie that comes dangerously close to earning the appellation “heartwarming” and yet manages to avoid it. Damn French. Any American re-make would tumble over into disaster.