Wahnsinnig verliebt

Audrey Tautou is in my opinion the greatest rising star of the French cinema. Coming from a tradition that does not lack great actors, beautiful divas, living legends, and huge comedians, Audrey seems to bring together talent and beauty, huge interior and exterior beauty. Some compared her with the other Audrey - Hepburn, but in my opinion the French star talent exceeds by light-years the one of the American.

'A la folie...' is an interesting film by itself. An apparent tragic love story is being told from one of the partners angle in the first half of the movie - just to be re-told from the other partner perspective in the second part. The second half and the end hide a twist. Both script and film are cleverly written though made by a script-writer and director (Laetitia Colombani) only at her second film. I am expecting good things from her in the future.

Worth seeing - 8/10 on my personal scale.

Basically I'm British and am not really supposed to like the French, I'm not sure why, I think it's something to do with Agincourt, Napoleon and the Eurovision Song Contest. Despite this I am frankly enamored with them because they're so much cooler than we could ever be.

It is because they are so comfortable in their own skin that they can get away with movies which would be embarrassing if made by the British and ghastly if made by the Americans. "À la folie... pas du tout" falls into this category. Sartre had a gift for doing philosophy in a hip, wine drinking, story telling, bohemian way. This movie has done a disturbing, psychological, tragic romance in a beautiful, sumptuous, fist-bitingly lovely way. I'm sure it's something to do with being French.

The only thing that irked me was that the script and plot were both repeatedly, albeit momentarily, clumsy. For a movie so graceful in terms of acting and direction it was sad that the screenplay couldn't quite keep pace.

On the upside the acting was great. I'm probably biased as it's only a profound laziness that stops me stalking Audrey Tautou, but she was marvelous. The story moved quickly and even the marginally avant garde perspective shift was beautifully achieved. The conclusion is wonderfully dark and leaves you feeling that the plot has been going somewhere and that you've arrived there quite unexpectedly.

Had the script been a little more polished I'd have given it more marks. Having said that I don't expect that anybody involved in the movie will be crying themselves to sleep because some random internet bloke has given them 8 out of 10. Having said that if Audrey Tautou should happen to stumble across this review my address is...

Watch it you'll enjoy it.

It's really hard to talk about this movie without giving something away. I'll give away as little as possible, but my recommendation would be, stop reading this or any other review and just watch the movie, it's very good.

Since I don't want to give anything away I can't say much about the story. It starts as a movie about a cute, sweet girl in love, and the movie's use of an actress who exudes sweetness and innocence makes what happens as the movie progresses all the more startling. The movie is devoted to its one central trick, and what's notable is not the trick - lots of movies have tricks - but how much time is spent in showing off the filmmaker's cleverness. This could have been annoying or self indulgent but I enjoyed it. Some people won't be surprised - I'm really not as good as guessing twists as a lot of people (which is why I consider the movie Matchstick Men to be so poor in spite of good reviews; that one I guessed straight through to the end early on) - but I was surprised and quite delighted.

Audrey Tautou might at first sight seem to be an actress with limitations, but most of what goes through in her character's heads are shown in the eyes.

This starts as a family comedy about the innocent girl sending her loved one flowers and other presents. But it gets worse and in the end you're watching a thriller that doesn't make you feel at ease. It becomes a story of life and death and not just in the physical way.

The story is told from two view points. It remains exciting anyway.

I didn't know what to expect when I saw this. I'm an American living in France and my girlfriend is French and rents all the French movies for me. This is one of those mixed genre movies that actually works! Audrey Tautou is so charming and capable as an actress that she makes you root for her even when you know she's playing someone completely crazy. She's already the biggest, most successful actress here in France and she's going to get even bigger. She's got what it takes to play different characters and she shows that in this movie.

The director brilliantly pieces together the two halves of this movie and by the end, it is believable. We almost wanted to watch it again so we can catch the tricks but we didn't have time.

Anyway this is a great French treat and for those of you who liked Tautou in "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement" you're going to like her in this one too.