The strength of this movie lies in the dialogues...and the dialogues are in French!!! Indeed, several jokes play with the homonyms and the subtlety of French language, so they are not likely to be appreciated by an non-French audience, and is probably the main reason why it received severe reviews outside France. In Montreal, the movie succeeded in launching several laughters in the audience. My main criticism is the play of the writer and main actor of the movie, Emmanuel Mouret. While most characters in the movie are at the border of being caricatures but yet are successfully credible thanks to the sensible plays of the actors, Emmanuel Mouret's portrait of an undecided young man appears artificial. Frederique Bel is delectable in her role. The camera was rather static, but this does not prevent Frederique Bel to light of all her talent. I thought the music was enjoyable and successfully put the audience in a French ambiance. Good, light movie, in sum.
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marc-pelletier25 August 2006
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writers_reign30 June 2006With a standing ovation at Cannes and the kind of reviews the cast could have written themselves this is a re-affirmation that audiences don't WANT cgi, s&v or mindless pap but are looking for throwbacks to simpler times when one went to the movies to be ENTERTAINED not preached/sermonised at or in search of a social conscience. The idea of flat/apartment sharing is hardly new, George Stevens dabbled in it 60 years ago with Jean Arthur moving in with Charles Coburn in war-time DC where space was at a premium. Here we have David (writer-director Emmanuel Mouret)who plays a mean French Horn and also teaches the same, sharing with Anne, Frederique Bel (also currently appearing in Camping) who falls loosely into the lovable kook category. Then Ariane Ascaride (the best thing in the film) decides that offspring Julia (Fanny Valette) might benefit from French Horn lessons and you should be able to guess the rest. Just to complicate matters Mouret throws in a second guy Julien (Danny Brilliant) and after that it's a case of perm any two from four. If light-as-air soufflé's are your thing you're almost certain to enjoy this but don't analyse it away.
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A young musician (David) moves to Paris and shares a flat with a young woman (Anne). Anne is a quite forthcoming woman, but both pretend not to be in love with one another as Anne is in love with one of her customer (who is not seen during the movie) and David is in love with one of his student (Julie).
Individual love stories progress, mix, and are made more complex by the apparition of Julie's true love (Julien).
The story is not credible at all, of course. None of the character seem to be really attuned with themselves. On the other hand, all are deeply sympathetic and the clumsiness of David and Anne is very funny and (I find) touching.
The result is a story of marivaudage between scrupulous peoples that are overwhelmed by what is happening. A lot of clumsy self-analysis is being thrown in, for a result that looks like a movie made by a "comic" Rohmer.
I loved it, but then I do love Rohmer's movies, which might not be everyone's cup of tea. -
eunbi053016 February 2016There are five important characters in this film Anne, David, Julia, Julien and, believe it or not, Gabriel, that won't show up at any time.
David is the best example of cringe-worthy material, it was, at least for me, really hard to deal with his lack of stand by himself feeling. Anne has a comic aura surrounding her, but she seems too artificial, as she didn't played her role willingly. Julien is the douche - I, for a moment, thought that Julien and Gabriel could be the same person. Julia is the pretty face that doesn't speak, she suffers from the "Lady and the Tramp" syndrome, girl that is rich ends up with poor dude. And Gabriel is really important because, without him, we would feel pity for Anne, and even though her artificiality transpires through most of the film, she still has some sincere moments with David, when they talk about their loved ones.
Maybe as the other said, I didn't understand the film in its full content because I'm not fluent in French, maybe someday I'll re- watch it with a better French.