At NYC's FIAF next week: another delectable Sacha Guitry delight, THE STORY OF A CHEAT

Lovers of classic French cinema had better mark their calendar for this coming Tuesday, April 24, when FIAF's New York City branch screens one of cinema/theater-master Sacha Guitry's enduring works, THE STORY OF A CHEAT (Le roman d'un tricheur) from 1936. TrustMovies has come quite late to discovering the films of this fellow, having just recently seen and reviewed his remarkable La Poison. As I noted earlier, and now feel even more strongly, I want to view anything by M. Guitry that I can get my hands on. The filmmaker, shown below, came from theatrical roots, which can be seen and heard in his remarkable dialog and his delightful way with words.

Sophisticated and urbane, Guitry had a grand understanding of humanity's foibles, including not only its need for hypocrisy and denial but also for bonding, beauty and love. He's a satirist who is wonderfully humane but rarely sentimental and never stupid. He sees the irony in just about everything and everyone, and this gives his work a consistent jolt of pleasure and surprise. Don't get too comfortable, he seems to be telling us, because that kick in the ass is just around the corner.

The tale Guitry tell here is one of a late-middle-aged fellow sitting at a little Parisian cafe, writing his memoir (beginning with his life as a child, above, in a family of 12) -- which springs to life as he writes and speaks. Much of the movie is told via narration (there is surprisingly little actual dialog here), and were this narration not so cleverly written and sustained via Guitry's wit and charm, we might grow weary of it. No chance of that.

How the child is suddenly orphaned and why he survives -- it involves thievery and punishment -- ought to be awful and horrifying. In Guitry's hands it is instead delightfully funny and witty, and so we follow this kid as he grows into an adolescent, then a young man and then into full maturity -- as both the "cheat" of the title (above) and yet somehow not quite a cheat at all.

The world is filled with cheats of all types and both sexes, we -- and our narrator -- soon learn, and these involve everyone from the woman with whom he has his first affair to his later jewel-thief mistress (above), and his even later on-paper-only wife (who eventually is to become, unknown to her, his one-night-stand). More of these cheats are female than male -- the men seeming to be the stronger and perhaps more trustworthy sex.
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Based upon the two films I've so far seen, Guitry could be accused of some misogyny, I think, and probably rightly so. He's a child of his time, after all, who perhaps today would have grown out of this, at least somewhat. I may have to correct my views once I've seen more of his work. Even so, this trait does not overpower the many strengths this writer/filmmaker possesses.

Nothing is sacred here: not gambling, not sex, not childhood, not family, and certainly not the Principality of Monaco! Well, maybe friendship. That seems to be something that could stand the test of time. Meanwhile, we have some delightful locations, assignations and peregrinations to enjoy. 

Guitry's sublime sense of irony, his great skill at story-telling, and above all his love of humanity in all its sublime silliness and sadness makes this movie a keeper indeed. How lovely that FIAF is showing the film as part of its CinéSalon series, Classic of French Cinema with Olivier Barrot, the journalist and TV personality.

The Story of A Cheat will screen at FIAF this coming Tuesday, April 24, at 4pm and 7:30, with the talk by M. Barrot scheduled for 6:45pm and open to audiences at both screenings. As usual with CinéSalon, there will be a post-screening wine/beer reception. For more information and/or tickets, simply click here.

For those of you not in the tri-state area or who can't make the FIAF screening, it may be of service to know that the film also exists on DVD via Criterion and its no-frills Eclipse collection and via FilmStruck -- for purchase, rental or streaming. 

Click here for more information.

At NYC's FIAF this week, a lesser-known (and rightly so) Jean Renoir film, FRENCH CANCAN

Even great filmmakers can have off-days, one example being Jean Renoir, he of Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, who made a movie entitled FRENCH CANCAN back in 1955 that begins with the disclaimer that nothing we will see should be taken as having anything to do with real life, events or people.

Smart move, as much that we see and hear smacks of enormous, often overdrawn artifice.

Directed and written/adapted (from an idea by André-Paul Antoine) by Renoir (shown at left), the movie takes place in the 1890's as Henri Danglard, a producer of something you might, if you were particularly gracious, call "theater," attempts to open a new night club to be named, yes, the Moulin Rouge, which will make its mark by reintroducing a by-then-retro dance called the Cancan, now to be rechristened as the French Cancan.

Because Henri is played by that fabulous French star Jean Gabin, one of whose many gifts included the inability to overact or deliver a performance that was anything less than real, he is one of a very few of the cast members who manage this seemingly (here, at least) difficult feat.

Among M. Gabin's other gifts (the actor is shown above) was his unassuming grace and believability as a ladies' man, and here he plays it big-time, with a long-term mistress (the haughtily glamorous Maria Felix, below), plenty of past conquests, and a possible new one on the horizon -- an adorable little laundress whom he meets one evening at a local dance hall and who has quite a knack for movement and dancing.

That laundress is played by Françoise Arnoul (below) with charm and wit enough to match M. Gabin, and her character soon has suitors enough to vie with Gabin: She's engaged to the local baker, is chased after by a super-wealthy foreign aristocrat, and eventually falls for her hero and mentor, who now has her training to perform in his new club.

This rondelay of love matches and mis-matches comes to a proper and quite fittingly adult, philosophical and emotional conclusion that features a terrific speech by Gabin about theater, performing, producing, love, marriage, responsibility and all the rest. This alone makes the movie worth watching, but the final 20 minutes or so, devoted to the grand opening of the Moulin Rouge, the various musical numbers performed (one of these by Edith Piaf!), and of course the final one involving the cancan are the absolute knock-out we've been waiting for -- and to which the entire movie has been building. (It's rather like seeing those famous Radio City Music Hall Rockettes -- but with a lot more heart and soul.)

If this sounds some kind of "rave" notice, indeed it is, but it must also be accompanied by a major caveat. The first 40 minutes or so of this film is quite a slough to get through. While the candy-colored sets are often lovely, there is also an over-abundance of short scenes that exist simply to make a point and further the plot. This is clunky filmmaking. Many of the subsidiary roles are overacted and too obviously written, as well -- making use of a number of performers who were popular at the time but whose shtick, for that is what it is, does not hold up at all well today.

There is literally so much of this going on so often (as with the three "shticklers" above) that the movie soon seems unduly noisy and tiresome. My spouse gave up on it around that 40-minute point. TrustMovies persisted and is very glad he did because that shtick soon lessens even as the love relationships strengthen, character comes to the fore, and genuine performing takes over -- both in the acting and in the musical performances themselves.

That lengthy and super-engaging finale features Ms Felix (above) as Catherine the Great -- doing a strip-tease and a shimmy! -- and includes a simply lovely song (that I believe was also featured briefly in Baz Luhrman's crappy Moulin Rouge), and lots more. So do stick with French Cancan, and it'll probably win you over, too.

One other note: If you place yourself back in time of 1955, the film's release here in the USA must have knocked the uptight American audience for a loop in terms of its attitude toward love and sex, as when the heroine, expecting to have to turn herself over sexually to her new producer/mentor, instead willingly loses her virginity to her baker fiancé (above) so that she can have her first sexual experience with a man she actually cares for. The film's mature and thoughtful take on sexuality and its place in society is something that I'm afraid a rather too-large percentage of American audiences may still have to grow up and into. The attitudes belonging to fundamentalist religions continue to apply here in the USA -- and in far too much of our world.

French Cancan screens in French with English subtitles at FIAF in New York City this coming Tuesday, March 27, at 4 and 7:30pm, as part of FIAF's continuing CinéSalon series of classic of French cinema with Olivier Barrot. M. Barrot, noted journalist and TV personality, has curated the current series and will appear for a 30-minute talk at 6:45 that evening to share his insights into the social and cultural contexts of the film. His talk will be open to audiences of either the 4:30 or 7pm screening. For more information and/or tickets, simply click here.

Nicolas Silhol's compelling workplace drama, CORPORATE, gets New York debut at FIAF during Lambert Wilson week

If you have not yet heard of French filmmaker Nicolas Silhol, you surely will -- if, that is, his first full-length movie, CORPORATE, gets any kind of distribution here in America. The film will make its New York City debut this coming Monday, November 6, at FIAF, which leads off a seven-week period dedicated to French icon/actor Lambert Wilson and his idol, the late actor/singer Yves Montand. The following day, Tuesday, November 7, FIAF will host M. Wilson's one-man-show (plus band), Lambert Wilson Sings Yves Montand, followed by the six-week FIAF CinéSalon program Actor's Choice: Lambert Wilson & Yves Montand, during which will screen three of Montand's best films and three of Wilson's many that demonstrate the range and skill of this actor -- who combines talent with matinee-idol looks.

In Corporate, which M. Silhol (shown at right) has directed with a fine eye for behavioral detail, as well as for French corporate infrastructure and its ability to circumvent the law, M. Wilson takes a back seat to the film's two female stars, Céline Sallette and Violaine Fumeau. The former, shown below, plays Corporate's anti-heroine, Emilie, whose journey the film tracks with skill and persistence.

Emilie is the head of Human Resources in a department of a large and powerful corporation. As most of the western world now, I hope, realizes, Human Resources (as we learned nearly 20 years ago via Laurent Cantet's fine movie of the same name) is anything but human, the resources of which are most often used to downsize and otherwise make miserable the lives of those with whom that corporation wishes to dispense.

The filmmaker very smartly allows us to see how Emilie works, even before he lets us view her own family life -- husband, child -- and begin to sympathize with her, if only a bit. Work-wise she is a conniving bitch, a role she feels she must play in order to do the job for which she's been hired by her extremely charming, duplicitous and ultimately vicious boss, played to low-key perfection by M. Wilson, below.

When the death of an underling occurs -- which is thoroughly the result of corporate policy -- and the government begins its standard investigation (via the dogged, demanding woman-in-charge, played very well by Ms Fumeau, below), Emilie's facade and soon her entire work world begins collapsing around her. 

Ms Sallet treads an uneasy line that has us alternately empathizing and criticizing her actions, deservedly so -- which makes her character all too sadly human and fallible. Most of the film's characters are drawn this way, and Silhol is able to make them -- and his movie -- all the more believable because of this.

Normally I would have found the finale of Corporate too easy, obvious, even old-hat. But I must say that Silhol pulls it off with enough panache that I bought it. He also makes it clear that the ending, which indeed is somewhat "happy" could also have pretty dire consequences for Emilie. Do we, after all, reap what we have sown? Or does that only work for the underclass? See Corporate, and feel free to ponder a bit.

The movie will screen only once, this coming Monday, November 6, at 7:30pm at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall and will be introduced by Lambert Wilson in person. Click here for more information and/or tickets. For more info on M. Wilson's musical Montand homage the following evening, click here, and to see the entire schedule of the CinéSalon Lambert Wilson/Yves Montand movies, click here.

Enigmatic EMMANUELLE DEVOS: FIAF hosts a sterling, eye-opening series featuring perhaps the finest actress in all of France

You'll recognize her immediately, even if you may not instantly recall her name: Emmanuelle Devos, the multi-award-winning actress who has already, at the age of 53, graced the screen (and French TV) in some 81 roles. TrustMovies would call her an icon of French cinema, perhaps the icon because she is a better actress -- more versatile and seemingly up to any challenge -- than, say Catherine Deneuve or even Isabelle Huppert, both of whose work (and beauty) I treasure. Ms Devos may not be quite as beautiful, though she can be hugely exotic and glamorous when she wishes, but she is an exceptional performer who is always in-the-moment and never indulges in a false one.

In fact, the actress will be appearing in one of the films in the FSLC Open Roads series -- Marco Bellochio's Sweet Dreams (above) -- this coming week, as well as starring, along with Natalie Baye, in Frédéric Mermoud's Moka (shown below), which will open at New York City's Film Forum the following week.

So it is a particular treat that tri-state audiences have in store as the French Alliance/Institute Francaise (FIAF) hosts an eight-week/eight-film CinéSalon series titled Enigmatic Emmanuelle Devos and featuring some of Devos' finest and most varied performances -- in movies that are themselves equally worthwhile. The actress selected these eight films, and she herself will be present for an in-person Q&A following the first of the screenings (Read My Lips) on Tuesday June 6 at its 7:30 pm showing.

I have seen seven of the eight films to be shown and can verify the quality of each. Given the enormous range this actress has shown over the years, there are plenty of other good films of hers that are not included here. But the eight below beautifully demonstrate how easily Devos can move from genre to genre, role to role, comedy to dark drama without missing a beat. Here is the complete schedule below, with my brief comments on seven of the eight film included in italics.

Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres)
Tuesday, June 6 at 4 & 7:30pm
35mm, directed by Jacques Audiard, 2001. 115 min. Color.
With Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, and Olivier Perrier. In French with English subtitles.

In her breakthrough role, Emmanuelle Devos plays Carla, a lonely, hearing-impaired secretary who hires and falls for ex-convict Paul (played by the ever-electrifying Vincent Cassel). While she initially resists Paul’s clumsy advances, Carla allows herself to be lured into helping him to carry out a dangerous underworld heist by using her lip-reading skills. Smoldering with erotic tension, Read My Lips is one of the most captivating thrillers by Jacques Audiard, the master of the contemporary French genre film, and the first film for which Emmanuelle Devos received a César award for best actress. "A sharp, inventive mix of love story and film noir" – Philadelphia Inquirer Winner of three 2002 César Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Actress,
If you've never seen this nifty genre-jumping thriller/drama, it should be a must. If you have, it is good enough to warrant a repeat viewing. Devos is spectacular indeed.   ....TM
Emmanuelle Devos will appear in person after the 7:30pm screening for a Q&A Free wine & beer following each screening.

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Gentille
Tuesday, June 13 at 4 & 7:30pm
35mm, directed by Sophie Fillières,
2005. 102 min. Color.
With Emmanuelle Devos, Lambert Wilson, Bruno Todeschini
In French with English subtitles.

In this delightfully zany comedy, Devos plays Fontaine Leglou, an anesthesiologist weighing a marriage proposal from her live-in boyfriend. While her life appears to be perfectly on track, Fontaine feels the itch for adventure: she provokes confrontations with strangers, considers an affair with one of her patients, and participates in a fire-eating display. Writer-director Sophie Fillières peppers Fontaine’s quest for happiness with wonderfully witty dialogue composed of non-sequiturs, word-play, and unexpected confessions. Full of offbeat characters and chance encounters on the streets of Paris, Gentille is a charming paean to settling down without losing your taste for eccentricity. “A breezy relationship comedy” – Variety
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening.
This is the single movie in the eight that I have not seen, so you are on your own here. But if it stars Devos, how bad can it possibly be?      ....TM

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Kings and Queen (Rois et reine)
Tuesday, June 20 at 4 & 7:30pm, 35mm, directed by Arnaud Desplechin
2003. 150 min. Color.
With Emmanuelle Devos, Geoffrey Carey, Thierry Bosc, Olivier Rabourdin, Mathieu Amalric
In French with English Subtitles

In what is probably her greatest role and undoubtedly one of the high points in contemporary French cinema, Devos plays the sublimely complex Nora—doting mother, manipulative partner, scared little girl, and independent woman. As Nora faces the impending loss of her father and prepares to marry a rich businessman to provide stability for her young son, writer-director Arnaud Desplechin deftly balances psychological drama and comedy to create an unforgettable portrait of Nora and the men in her orbit—notably her ex-boyfriend, the ne’er-do-well violinist Ismael (Mathieu Amalric) who is institutionalized at the request of an anonymous family member. "Fully alive and extraordinarily intelligent."—The New Yorker
It has been at least a decade since I viewed this one, but but I remember being utterly floored by the performances of both Devos and Amalric. Director Desplechin's work -- combining philosophy, psychology and film-making skill -- has been an acquired taste for me, but it is a taste that has only grown stronger over the years.  ....TM
Winner of the 2005 César Award for Best Actor, Mathieu Amalric.
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening.

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My Sex Life…or How I 
Got Into an Argument
(Comment je me suis disputé… [ma vie sexuelle])
Tuesday, June 27 at 4 & 8pm, DCP, directed by Arnaud Desplechin,
1996. 178 min. Color.
With Mathieu Almaric, Emmanuelle Devos, Emmanuel Salinger, Chiara Mastroianni, Denis Podalydès In French with English subtitles.

In Arnaud Desplechin’s freewheeling and breathlessly inventive film, and what is arguably her first important role, a luminous Devos plays Esther, Paul Dedalus’s longtime girlfriend. Dedalus, a neurotic, Joycean 29-year-old grad student can neither finish his thesis, nor commit to a girlfriend. Following his circle of friends and lovers into their every late-night, cigarette-fueled argument over love and philosophy, director Arnaud Desplechin revels in the chaos of being young and self-involved. “A delayed coming-of-age masterpiece and one of the great French post–New Wave films” —Art Forum
One of Desplechin's earlier works, this goofy, charming, uber-intelligent and frustrating combination can delight and drive you nuts in equal measure. I wonder, however, why the curators of this series did not program this one prior to the Desplechin's Kings and Queen, which will be shown the week previous?    ....TM
Winner of the 1997 César Award for Most Promising Actor, Mathieu Amalric. Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening.

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Just a Sigh (Le temps de l’aventure)
Tuesday, July 11 at 4pm
DCP, directed by Jérôme Bonnell,
2012. 104 min. Color.
With Emmanuelle Devos, Gabriel Byrne, Gilles Privat.
In French with English subtitles

On a train to Paris, a seductive Englishman (Gabriel Byrne) approaches struggling actress Alix (Devos) and asks how to get to a church on the Left Bank. After a horrible audition and with only hours to spare before she has to return to the provinces, Alix decides to go to the church and finds the handsome stranger…in the middle of a funeral. Wistful yet forward-looking, romantic yet real, Just a Sigh is a Brief Encounter for our times, a portrait of a restless woman on the brink of change that displays the full range of Devos’s wonderfully detailed acting. “Ms. Devos, a mainstay of French cinema, suggests a younger Catherine Deneuve.” —The New York Times
An unexpected delight, this seeming trifle turns out to have remarkable depth, most of which comes from Devos' spectacular performance that delves into character in the most specific and haunting of ways. it will have you laughing out loud one minute and holding your breath the next.      ....TM
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening. Presented as part of FIAF’s First Tuesdays. See fiaf.org for info.

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The Other Son (Le fils de l’autre)
Tuesday, July 11 at 7:30pm
DCP, directed by Lorraine Lévy,
2011. 105 min. Color.
With Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk
In French, English, and Arabic with English subtitles

The old tale of infants switched at birth is given intense political and religious resonance in this story of a French-Israeli Jewish couple discovering that their eighteen-year-old son Joseph is actually the son of a Palestinian family…and that their own son has been raised in the West Bank. Director Lorraine Lévy avoids the pitfalls of a melodramatic situation to deliver a surprisingly nuanced, closely observed vision of the life of two families on either side of the Israeli West Bank barrier. Playing the Israeli mother, Devos leads a stellar ensemble of French, Israeli, and Palestinian actors. "Propelled by a hopeful, good-hearted humanism."—The New York Times
An absolute must-see, if you never caught its theatrical or DVD release. You can read my complete review by clicking here.     ....TM
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening. Presented as part of FIAF’s First Tuesdays. See fiaf.org for info.

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Those Who Remain (Ceux qui restent)
Tuesday, July 18 at 4 & 7:30pm
35mm, directed by  Anne Le Ny,
2007. 93 min. Color.
With Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, Yeelem Jappain
In French with English subtitles

A staid professor and an ebullient graphic designer develop an unexpected friendship when they meet at the hospital where both their partners are being treated for cancer. Though they have radically different ways of coping with their difficult situations, Bertrand and Lorraine find solace in each other’s company. But when their relationship threatens to turn romantic, both have to reexamine their lives. This sensitive look at the struggles faced by caregivers and loved ones of people with long-term illness rises to great heights through the opposites-attract pairing of two of France’s greatest stars, Vincent Lindon and Emmanuelle Devos. “[An] exquisitely observed psychological drama.”—The New York Times
My full review has now disappeared (along with all else on the site of the late, lamented Greencine), but this early film from director Le Ny is a real gem of character and quietly moving situation. Do try to see it, if you did not catch it during its earlier Rendez-vous with French Cinema screening a decade ago.      ....TM
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening.

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Violette 
Tuesday, July 25 at 4 & 7:30pm
DCP, directed by Martin Provost
2012. 139 min. Color.
Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain, Olivier Gourmet
In French with English subtitles.

This exquisitely crafted biopic follows novelist Violette Leduc’s hand-to-mouth existence in Paris from the dark days of the Occupation to the existentialist ferment of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and her eventual triumph as the author of La Batârde. Focusing on Leduc’s peculiar relationship with her champion and unavowed muse Simone de Beauvoir (played by the great Sandrine Kiberlain), Violette is a startlingly accurate, stark look at life on the fringes of Paris’s cultural elite. Devos brings a desperate, compelling intensity to the role of this driven outsider who came to be admired by luminaries such as Sartre, Camus, and Genet. "Director Martin Provost's epic portrait of novelist Violette Leduc is so compelling, even thrilling, in its frank depictions of female sexual voracity."—Los Angeles Times
Martin Provost -- who gave us the splendid Seraphine -- has done it again with this second terrific bio-pic, and Devos is amazing, as usual. Read my complete review here.              ....TM
Special guest speaker to be announced. Free wine & beer following each screening.

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To get tickets
simply click on the link to any of the individual films, above, and proceed from there. (FIAF members, of course, can view any and all the films for free!)

About FIAF
The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York’s premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. Support for this program is provided by UniFrance. Special thanks to Géraldine Bryant (Le Bureau Films), Debbie Acosta, John Kochman (Cohen Media), Clémence Taillandier (Distrib Film), Élodie Dupont (Festival Agency), Mike Maggiore (Film Forum), Geneviève Villaflor, Jimmy Weaver (Film Movement), Jonathan Hertzberg (Kino Lorber), Eric Di Bernardo, Dave Franklin, Adrienne Halpern (Rialto), Adeline Monzier (UniFrance), Nadège Le Breton, Steven Martin (Why Not Productions), Olpha Ben Salah, Esther Devos, Livia van der Staay (Wild Bunch), Jean-François Gabard, Sophie Sarr (Zelig). CinéSalon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. CinéSalon is sponsored by Air France and Delta Air Lines, BNP Paribas, Lacoste, and Renault Nissan. Wine courtesy of Vinadeis, the exclusive wine sponsor of CinéSalon. Beer courtesy of Kronenbourg 1664, the exclusive beer sponsor of CinéSalon. Program Sponsors: Air France and Delta Air Lines, American Society of the French Legion of Honor, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Engie, French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), Florence Gould Foundation, Hermès Foundation within the framework of the New Settings Program, Howard Gilman Foundation, Institut français, JCDecaux, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Office de Tourisme de Boulogne-Billancourt, and Pommery.

FIAF's comedy series takes off with the U.S. premiere of Jean-Christophe Meurisse's APNEE

Fascinating, annoying -- even sometimes actually funny -- but always interesting, this first film by French theater director Jean-Christophe Meurisse is determined to knock the socks off its audience. Indeed, we remain barefoot just about throughout. Beginning with a threesome -- two men and a woman -- who arrive at city hall in bridal gowns and insist that they be married to each other, after which the civil servant who tries to reason with them is driven 'round the bend, we then get the movie's opening credits, during which the three ice skate -- and quite professionally, too -- in the nude. (This may be not actually be our three actors, since each is hidden behind a facial mask.)

Yes, these are ground-breaking scenes, of a sort, as is what follows: the three, as shown above, taking a bath in a showroom window. Our little group are clearly troublemakers, transgressors who, more than anything else, simply want to flip our declining civilization the bird. M. Meurisse, shown at left, who both wrote and directed APNEE, is nothing if not determined. And that determination begins to wear one down long before the movie finds its finale. Yet, so different is it in its dead-set dedication from almost any other movie you'll have encountered, that it proves very hard, even for a moment, to avert your gaze.

And so, along the kind of road trip the threesome takes, we tackle everything sacrosanct from religion and family to art and consumerism, marriage and sex (though, as concerns the latter, neither our two guys nor their woman seem all that interested or able to even enjoy sex. Or. come to think of it, much of anything else, save making trouble.

What all this accomplishes is to turn our threesome into something symbolic rather than real or human. They exist to make a point, and damned it they don't make it -- over and over again. The three lead performers -- above, left to right: Céline Fuhrer, Maxence Tual and Thomas Scimeca -- are attractive and sometime funny, but they exist in the vacuum that Meurisse has created, so it's difficult to breathe or grow.

Still, that vacuum is an original, all right, and it's an interesting one. Highlights include a visit to a "typical" empty-nest family, in which the trio questions the elders about their family life, and to a gorgeous village-by-the-sea in which we meet a tubby postman (above, right) who turns into a kind of muse for our boys.

Along the way we meet Jesus, too, and eventually the trio gets its wedding, complete with a bacchanale that features opera and wrestling. Ah, but is our little threesome happy at last? Take a guess.

So far as TrustMovies knows, Apnée has never been seen here in the U.S., which makes this FIAF premiere an especially notable one. The film -- part of the FIAF CinéSalon continuing series, Comedy on Film: What Makes the French Laugh -- will show this coming Tuesday, February 14 (how appropriate: for Valentine's Day!) at 4pm and 7:30pm at Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, New York City.

To learn more information and/or to procure tickets, simply click here.

In FIAF's continuing comedy series, Jean Dujardin stars in his international breakout hit, OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES

For nearly a decade now, French actor and international star, Jean Dujardin, has proven his adaptability and versatility in a raft of movies ranging from the satiric/comedic (the OSS films and The Players) to the more serious (the Oscar-winning The Artist, Little White Lies and The Connection). So it is interesting to go back more than ten years and again view his international breakout hit, OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES, in which the actor struts his stuff in the area of satirical characterization as a utterly pompous idiot trying to replicate a James Bond type of sophisticated action hero.

The movie itself may be repetitive and awfully obvious, but Dujardin (above) is terrific at both physical comedy and sleek, clever satirical characterization. He's a joy to view, as he puts his sexy face and body to work making us forget all about those qualities -- and instead laugh our heads off. The plot, such as it is, has to do with catching naughty Arabs back in the 1950s, and so we get our fill -- thanks to terrific sets, costumes, clothes, cars and the like -- of this time period, done to an absolute fare-thee-well.

As the leading lady, we also get the lovely and spirited Bérénice Bejo (above), plus some crack French supporting actors in the smaller roles. So successful was this film, that it spawned another one -- the less good OSS 117: Lost in Rio -- and that, I think, capped off what many expected to be a franchise à la the continuing Bond films.

As another example of the various kinds of French comedy, this film certainly has its place as satire in the form of a slightly-above-mainstream-level comedy.  And if you have never seen Dujardin in action, this is a prime opportunity to watch, learn, and laugh.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies will screen this coming Tuesday, February 7, at 4pm and 7:30 at the Florence Gould Hall of FIAF on Manhattan's East 59th Street. For further information and/or tickets, simply click here.

A Coline Serreau movie and live comedy from Patrick Timsit highlight FIAF's coming week

Unfortunately, the movie I most wanted to see in the entire current CinéSalon series at FIAF proved unavailable to be viewed in advance with English subtitles. It is by one of my favorite French directors, Coline Serreau (her Pourquoi Pas! and Chaos are two of the films I most love). FIAF attendees will be able to see the English-subtitled version in a 35mm print at the two screenings, however, so I will simply offer the description, below, sent to me by FIAF's very helpful publicist:

La Crise 
Tuesday, January 31
at 4 & 7:30pm
shown in 35 mm, 1992,
in color. 95 min.
written & directed
by Coline Serreau
With Vincent Lindon, Patrick Timsit, Zabou Breitman, Maria Pacôme. In French with English subtitles.

When thirtysomething Victor loses his wife and job in a single day, he sets off in search of a friend to comfort him but soon comes up against the bottomless self-absorption of his contemporaries. A random encounter with the annoying but oddly engaging barfly Michou finally provides Victor with companionship and an opportunity to take a hard look at himself.

While it may be dispiriting to note that this 1992 comedy of manners’ critique of egocentrism and consumerism is as relevant as ever, its gallery of hilarious characters serve as potent reminders that laughter is the best medicine.

 “The portraits are well chiseled, words gush out and several skits are irresistible. Always anxious to capture society’s pulse. Coline Serreau takes hold of economic and moral crisis to make a satirical comedy. Everyone is raked over the coals and Serreau does a good job of unearthing the selfishness and snobbery hidden in all of us” —Télérama

Click here for further information and/or to purchase tickets.

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One of the stars of La Crise, Patrick Timsit, will be performing at FIAF later in the week with his popular one-man comedy show.

Patrick Timsit : 

On ne peut pas rire de tout

Friday and Saturday, February 3 and 4 at 7:30pm

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall

$40 FIAF Members; $45 Non-Members

Beloved French actor and award-winning comedian Patrick Timsit returns to FIAF this February with his acclaimed new show On ne peut pas rire de tout. No topic is too risqué as Timsit brings his signature style and caustic humor to show that people really “can laugh at everything.” Testing the limits with his biting wit and brilliant commentary on politics and society, Timsit was recently named “today’s funniest comedian” (Express Styles).

Click here for further information and/or to purchase tickets.