After You (2003)

Apres Vous is a subtle, gentle comedy that tries to raise smiles rather than belly laughs, and so may not be to everybody's tastes. The ever-reliable Daniel Auteuil plays Antoine, a nice-guy waiter who saves Louis (Jose Garcia) from suicide and, his role in life being to help (or serve) others, feels compelled to straighten out Louis' life to prevent him from taking it again. Unfortunately, these plans don't go quite to plan, and Antoine finds his own life falling apart.It takes a while to get into this typically Gallic comedy, and there is never anything particularly memorable taking place on screen, but it does reward the patient viewer with an ultimately sweet view of human nature and displays a positive attitude to life, irrespective of the setbacks encountered by us all, which results in all the main characters left in a better position at the end of the movie than at the start. While the character of Antoine is perhaps a little too saintly to be truly believable – many would have decked Louis at the point when he accuses his saviour of being selfish – Auteuil makes him an immensely likable person, which is just as well as it's up to him to carry most of the film. Garcia is suitably stricken as the hapless Louis, traumatised by the break-up of his relationship with Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain) and frightened of things falling on top of him. The idea of having these two main characters slowly exchanging their situations (and, to a lesser degree, mental quirks) has you suspecting that things are heading towards a much darker conclusion than they actually do, but the writers manage to manufacture a more uplifting – if less likely – conclusion.

French farce is an acquired taste, especially since a lot of the sensibilities that drive the plots of such confections are uniquely Gallic in nature. Directed by Pierre Salvadori, this 2005 movie, a spirited throwback to an earlier time in French cinema, is no exception, as it plays like a shaggy-dog, transatlantic re-take on Frank Oz's "What About Bob?" with unsettling traces of Adrian Lyne's "Fatal Attraction" thrown in for good measure. For those who don't embrace this type of farce easily, the film's central flaw is its strenuous premise - that a Good Samaritan who saves a man from suicide has an obligation to ensure that person no longer has a reason to end his life, no matter what it takes.Credited to four writers (not a good sign), the paper-thin plot focuses on Antoine, a dedicated restaurant maître d', who literally stumbles upon the hapless Louis, who is about to hang himself in the throes of a failed relationship. Antoine saves the near-catatonic Louis and starts to mend his life, first by retrieving a suicide note from Louis's grandparents, putting Louis up in his apartment much to the chagrin of Antoine's sensible girlfriend Christine, and then trying to reunite Louis with his object of obsession, Blanche. The rest is pretty predictable, though there are some nice slapstick scenes interspersed here and there, for instance, the interview and the lobster with the curling tail. By the way, the food at the fictitious Chez Jean restaurant looks wonderful, thanks to Gilles Henry's rich cinematography.Daniel Auteuil, France's favorite actor, is the one saving grace of the film as he plays Antoine with some sense of comedy skill and befuddled vulnerability, although his character becomes increasingly disconnected with rational behavior as the movie lurches along. As Louis, José Garcia plays an impossible role as well as can possibly be expected, but the character's intolerable nature finally gets the best of him. As Blanche, the woman in between, Sandrine Kiberlain is wan and sallow, hardly a presence that would elicit such adoring behavior. Better is Marilyne Canto, who as Christine, is the only one who seems to represent a reasonable viewer perspective. It all ends predictably though hardly satisfactorily. The movie is intermittently amusing, oddly fitful for the most part, but more pervasively frustrating for the unfortunate premise by which it all hangs so precariously. The DVD has no significant extras.

One of the worst French movies I've ever seen (and I'm a fan of French movies). Was it trying to be a 'madcap comedy', like 30's Carole Lombard films? Unbelievable characters, unbelievable behaviors, unbelievable acting. Such a sad mess. Auteuil, who earned his fame in the marvellous movies 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon de la Source', where as a former TV comic, he stunned the French public with his performance as a turn of the century Midi peasant, is absolutely wasted in this movie. One can see his skill in trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but he's unable to overcome a stupid script, an idiotic concept and one can only assume he did it for the money. To be avoided at all costs. We don't want to encourage these people.

Daniel Auteuil is always good value. One of France's top actors he is the master of understatement, telling us more by facial expression and body language than words ever could. However, I think he was sold short by this movie where the other characters, with one exception, were poorly drawn. Without spoiling - he rescues a man about to hang himself because his girlfriend has left him, and becomes entangled in this man's life. But there was nothing about either the guy or his girlfriend which merited someone going out of their way to help. Both totally lacked charisma, Blanche particularly was one of those women you simply want to shake in an effort to get some sort of personality into her. Louis needed a smart punch in the mouth and frankly, when Antoine finally got to the end of his tether with the guy's stupidity and weaknesses, I was looking forward to that as the high spot of the movie. Nothing could have upstaged the marvellous André Tainsy though, who died only a few months after this film was released, aged 93. She was une trésor absolue, carrying off her role with finesse, incredible humour, so understated - and total aplomb. It is a funny film (and if you know Fawlty Towers, it's in that vein) in an excruciatingly painful way where you just know everything is going to go wrong and there are a couple of laugh-aloud moments but given the mood throughout, it has the unlikeliest ending you could imagine.Brilliant music by Camille Bazbaz all the way through and if nothing else his 'Papa Tango Charlie' should have been a massive hit.