One sign of good writing is how they deal with the Exposition and it's not necessarily how Quickly but how Smoothly. Seamless is good. This is an excellent example; the credits roll over a small seaside town telling us all we need to know about the kind of town it is and come to rest naturally on the hairdressing salon of Yvon Rance (Gerard Jugnot) whose clientèle, virtually all blue-rinse matrons is established equally quickly whilst the main exception, a teenage boy who wants only Laetitia to cut his hair establishes that there is a daughter of the house and presumably a looker. Within minutes Yvon begins to fret about the absence of this daughter to the extent of leaving his salon and asking the patron and teenage customers of the neighboring bar if they have seen her - there is even time for the wife of the patron to arrange a tryst with Yvon who leaves with no concrete knowledge of his daughter. Through all this there has been no talk, hint or suggestion of a Madame Rance and without being told we know that there isn't one. In less than five minutes screen time we have come to know a middle-aged man who is still virile and worries/is over protective of a 17 year old daughter. Within a few minutes more we meet the daughter herself who, instead of sitting exams at school has not only been for an audition but has landed the lead in a major film. Now the stage is set for comedy, drama, the whole nine yards. There seems to be only one other comment on this film which makes a point that I will second, namely that this is not the funniest film you'll ever see but neither is it the most dramatic or tragic. Yes, there ARE laughs, lots of laughs and yes, there ARE tears, perhaps not so many but enough. Mostly these are REAL people not cardboard and we ARE able to care about them, to laugh or even perhaps wince at the way a single father's concern manifests itself, and to cry a little when the chick flies the nest and, just as we know she will, gets her wings burned before maturing and leaving us with a warm feeling by reel #10. The more I see of Geral Jugnot the more I find myself thinking of him in terms of a French Jack Lemmon, a man who exudes decency from every pore yet can induce tears of laughter and happiness effortlessly and still make us cry dramatically if necessary. The fact that he writes and directs as well as acts is all the more remarkable. This movie won't set the world on fire but it will warm the occasional heart which is no bad thing.
Review of Meilleur espoir féminin
