Venus Beauty Institute (1999)

What a lovely little film for the cynical romantic! I found it more then satisfying after watching it for the first time, and have since purchased it, which attests to its appeal to me. I'm less-then-satisfied with the likes of films such as "Runaway Bride" et al. I love a good movie, a movie that draws you in - and have no interest in "chick flicks", however this one comes very close to filling that void - a thinking woman's "chick flick". Like Paris, it shows it's feminine side heartily, however the male characters have something to show for themselves as well. Very fantastical, yet this film has enough to it to believe that the stories it tells just might unfold 'in real life' as they have in this film.

There's something almost cloyingly twee about 'Venus Beauty Institute', a romantic drama constructed around a series of encounters between the staff of a Paris beauty salon and their clients. The problem is not so much with the individual vignette, which are generally well observed and acted, but rather in the underpinning notion that all life can be neatly sampled through such a prism, each set-piece topped and tailed by the ghastly sound generated each time the shops's doors are opened. There's even an early role for Audrey Tautou, which provides one clue as to the tone of the film. However, the movie is definitely a cut above the likes of 'Bridget Jones' Diary', principally because of the fine performance of Nathalie Baye in the central role. She plays a subtly jaundiced forty-something, and imbues the film with a touching realism absent from generic chick-lit adaptations. There's little real plot that can't be foreseen, but thanks to Baye (and the understated direction of Tonie Marshall), this is a more interesting movie than most in its genre.

"Venus Beauty Institute" tells of 40+ Angele (Baye), who prefers one night stands or "flings", as she calls them, to normal heterosexual relationships and love, and her lack of success with men. In addition to never being given a reason to care about Angele one way or the other, the audience will find much of this film dedicated to superfluous girl talk about the this and that of their lives and vocations. Inconclusive and muddled, "VBI" has little to offer save some fine performances which seems wasted on a trite and useless story.

If this movie has been selected as the best film of the year by French Academy, I don't want to think about the other movies. We are in front of a silly movie, nothing in it must be considered. We can only watch it as amusement such as we hear raining. This is a movie of the pile, we can watch it, but if we don't watch nothing happens.