Beautiful Lies (2010)

Set in a world of perpetual sunshine in the south of France, BEAUTIFUL LIES (DE VRAIS MENSONGES) has a plot with distinct echoes of CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Former UNESCO translator Jean (Sami Bouajila), now working in a hairdressing salon, writes an anonymous love-letter to owner Emilie (Audrey Tautou). Although not knowing who the author is, Emilie convinces her mother Maddy (Nathalie Baye) that the letter has been written for her mother's benefit: Emilie subsequently writes two more anonymous love-letters for her mother, pretending that they have come from the same author as the first letter. Further complications ensue, but the story ends happily enough.Pierre Salvadori's film looks at the gulf separating words from meanings: what the characters say - either in written or spoken discourse - and what they actually mean are often two different things. This is especially true of Emilie, who convinces herself that she is acting in her mother's best interests, but ends up being utterly self-absorbed. Her narcissistic nature is summed up by the frequency of shots where she sits in her office, a bottle of vodka in hand, trying to pen new love-letters for her mother. Emilie comes across as a basically unattractive person; in the pre-credit sequence she is shown cutting the fringe off one of her customer's (Cécile Boland's) hair, even though the customer specifically insists otherwise.By comparison, Maddy is meant to be represented as an innocent victim - unable to come to terms with her ex-husband's (Daniel Duval's) decision to leave her for a younger woman, her life is in pieces, as she sits on the sofa in a nightdress. The prospect of a younger man falling in love with her gives her renewed energy, so much so that, even when Emilie tells her the truth, Maddy still invites Jean round for a romantic dinner for two. But here's the rub - at the end of the evening she decides to bed Jean, while being perfectly aware of his feelings for Emilie. We are left to wonder why: is Maddy taking revenge on her daughter, or is she at heart as self-interested as Emilie?For the first four-fifths of DE VRAIS MENSONGES, director Salvadori creates a light-as-gossamer romantic comedy with serious undertones in which gesture assumes as much significance as word. The shot/reverse shot sequences involving Emilie and Jean, where the two of them try their best not to disclose their true feelings for one another, are beautifully handled, as is the sequence where Emilie's tongue-tied employee Paulette (Judith Chemla) tries her best to explain something to Emilie while not looking her in the eye. The ending, however, is a bit of a cop-out - although order is restored, we are left to ponder the (lack of) moral scruples influencing the characters' behavior, even that of Jean. One wonders precisely how women are viewed in this apparently liberal society.

This is a light romantic comedy from France that actually does have a few edges. Which means it's not too straightforward, but it also means that it has some story developments that might not be to your liking. Especially if you believe the cover text (about this having the heights of Amelie).Do not even think about Amelie (it might seem difficult but our Amelie sweetheart is capable of being someone else too), because this will spoil your movie experience. I liked this a lot because, the characters seem so real and therefor you really feel for the people/characters and what they are going through. Not everyones taste obviously this is a nice touch on a genre :o)

Pierre Salvadori is too good a writer director to have to 'steal' from others but alas that's what's happened here - to a certain extent. Back in 1999 Tonie Marshall wrote and directed Venus Beaute' which centred on the Beauty Salon of the title and three of its employees, all looking for, rejecting and/or finding love. Nathalie Baye had the lion's share of screen time as the senior of the three employees, the other two being Mathilde Sagnier and a young actress who had caught Marshall's eye, Audrey Tautou, whom she cast as the youngest of the three. The film picked up several awards including no less than three Cesars (the French Oscars) for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Newcomer, Tautou. Now, eleven years later Salvadori casts Tautou as the owner of a hairdressing salon anxious to secure a love life for her mother, none other than Nathalie Baye. Technically Salvadori made two mistakes because Baye walks away with the picture from under the nose of the 'star' Tautou. To be fair Baye is one of the finest French actresses of her generation and has walked away with more pictures than Tautou has appeared in. Salvadori, of course, worked with Tautou on Hord de Prix (Priceless outside France) which scored at the box office despite a dubious premise which it really needed Billy Wilder to get away with. This time around Tautou is noticeably losing the bloom of youth which has been her stock in trade for so long - as well she might at 35 - and appears to be straining at times to look cute. On the other hand plots like this - mistaken identity involving romance - are mere finger exercises for French movie makers so there is a certain amount of charm and skill on display but the best thing about it by a country kilometre is Baye.

Director Pierre Salvadori reunites with actress Audrey Tautou from their earlier collaboration Priceless, but don't get your hopes up too high that Beautiful Lies would be a solid enough follow up especially if you enjoyed their earlier film on how some would fake a relationship or trade love for money. Salvadori continues with the offbeat romantic comedy premise involving make believe with this film, but alas it came through as a rather predictable affair.It's hard to sustain a relationship based on a lie, and things get a lot complicated here when lies become the foundations on which romantic relationships, favours and that between parent and child get all built upon, where an innocently anonymous letter from a hair salon handyman Jean (Sami Bouajila) to his boss Emelie (Audrey Tautou) the salon co-owner, gets tossed aside by the latter since she obviously paid no heed to it, only for that attention to be retracted when she realized that her mom Maddy (Nathalie Baye) is due for a romantic lift from her prolonged sustained depression since her husband Marc (Paul Morgan) left her for someone younger and nubile to be his artistic muse.Thus begins a series of contrived misunderstandings and lies built upon lies with the constant letter writings from Emelie posing as an anonymous admirer, only for her ruse to be unintentionally skewed way off the mark when Maddy thinks it is indeed Jean who has hidden feelings for her, no thanks to an errant Jean had to run which took him to dropping off the letter. Naturally this follows plenty of hidden meanings and Emelie trying to come between the two for fear of an expose, guiding this film to some laughable light hearted moments.But it turned into a chore with Emelie having to beg a reluctant Jean to continue a charade to entertain her mother for fear of her mental and emotional state, with Emelie none the wiser that Jean was actually the originator of the letter to her declaring his love from afar. Oh the pain involved to help a loved one in her time of need, yet having to compromise one's principles to act out a lie, and worse, to lead a senior citizen on in some hope of a second wind of romance. It may sound like a fun premise, but trust me, it certainly was a chore to the character of Jean, and somehow this translated to the whole narrative giving you that sinking feeling of being unable to bail out from something forced upon, and unpleasant.Beautiful Lies got condemned in a certain way with a whole host of unlikeable ones. Emelie begins with a good intent, but in efforts to save her own skin from embarrassment and to keep her madcap idea under reins, she turns into some crazy control freak who frequently lies, manipulating Jean and of course causing undue strain with her staff at work. Manipulative and scheming, Audrey Tautou does pull this one off to a certain degree, until it became repetitive no thanks to Emelie's constant exasperation. Jean also went into an about turn with his descend into probably one of the biggest cinematic jerks as well, one without courage to walk out of a morally compromising position, and assisting an ugly (on the inside) woman with her grand scheme. Only perhaps Nathalie Baye's portrayal as the emotionally helpless mom brought about some light to the film, if not for the last few scenes of the film to really show her off as an opportunist with no qualms to turn tables.Without characters you genuinely feel for and a narrative that was in a hurry to conclude with a convenient ending sticking out like a sore thumb, one too perfect in many ways to sweep all development under the carpet, Beautiful Lies is extremely far from beautiful, and you would probably be better off watching any of Tautou's earlier works. Certainly not one of her best roles to date, stuck in a story based on a joke that had gone too far it isn't interesting.