Je vous trouve très beau

"Forget you don't stand a chance, and just go for it! Who knows, it might work out of a misunderstanding!"

This is Jean-Claude Dusse's seduction advice from French comedy classic "Les Bronzés Font du Ski" and it sounds like the kind of quotes Woody Allen would have delivered in one of his early zany comedies. And ever since his film debut with the 'Splendid' Troop, Michel Blanc has always been a sort of Woody Allen's counterpart, never quite lucky with women, even managing to get bullied and towered by Gérard Jugnot. So he kind of makes a point with this cynical yet well-exposed tactic. Michel Blanc, like Woody Allen, was never cut for the leading man roles: bald, at 5'5 and with rather average looks, but he had a prolific career nonetheless and great films in and behind the screen. Still, he wasn't really love-story material.

But his self-derision made him lovable with this self-consciousness that inhabit losers and make them such appealing characters and Blanc such an endearing actor, and the merit of "Je Vous Trouve Très Beau" is to have exploited the best facet of the actor, from the chuckle inducing title. It means, literally, "I find you very attractive", which is one of the French sentences Romanian girls learn in order to compliment their French soon-to-be husbands, but when you have a bitter and grouchy farmer looking like Ayme in front of you, it's hard not to make this sound awkward. Even Aymé is tired of hearing women telling him that he's good looking, and when one of them, named Elena (Medea Marinescu) says that he's not that handsome, well, he's vexed but at least, she seems sincere. The film was made at a time where Romania wasn't in the European Union so I might understand why they were eager to flee to the country of "Tour Eiffel", "Moulin Rouge"… although with Ayme, they were candidate for disappointments at first sight.

But Ayme doesn't make himself more likable or sexy, he's rather straightforward about his expectations, he doesn't need a wife but a help, not a body or a heart but hands, and from the way he's seen interacting with his wife, shortly before her death, it's obvious that Ayme never had anything worth someone's love, not the looks, not even the time. But it doesn't matter, Elena doesn't want the fairy tale, she needs money to open a dance school for her little girl. As a matter of fact, she's the closest to a dishonest character, but I wouldn't call her that, because she seems genuinely interested in making Ayme's life better and it's painful to see her attempts and the cute way she brings him food at midday being welcomed with anger. Of course, we know it's a matter of time before Ayme's heart is defrosted, but the situations are so touching and humanly pleasing that the film is better to be enjoyed without really caring for the plot.

Indeed, it's only when the story must move forward a little that it gets predictable or needlessly contrived. The film is the directorial debut of French comedienne Isabelle Mergault who was mostly known for being a guest in a TV show, and this is a role no one saw her coming and yet she made one of the most successful films of the year. I'm not surprised because as she said, she was so scared she prepared everything, she had her story set and when she came at the field, everything turned well. I wish she would have trusted her story enough to enrich it with a few subplots. For instance, Ayme never says Elena is his wife, and there's a blooming romance between her and a young farmer that could have lead somewhere. This is a film that is so confident in its simplicity that it almost affords to be surprisingly good at some parts; so good you wish it had tried a little more at others. Also, I felt like some pivotal moments were missing and compensated by needlessly overwritten scenes.

There's a moment where Elena puts on a sexy nightgown and waits for Ayme in the bed, but when he comes, he yells at her and calls her a whore, she slaps him and leaves the house. When he comes to her, he apologizes, but then goes to a long speech detailing how he's not angry with Elena but himself. Here I thought the film could have done without it, because the characters are well-written enough so we know the anger isn't directed to Elena, so this part said a lot about the directors' lack of confidence in her material. The irony is that some parts are underwritten, besides the courting young farmer, how about Ayme's friend? When he discovers the truth, I don't see why he doesn't confront Ayme in a straightforward way instead of playing riddles with him. It didn't seem consistent with the niceness of this character.

The film isn't very ambitious except in telling a good love story and it does, thanks to the actors' performances, it doesn't take many risks but at least, we feel satisfied at the end, and it is so touching it inspired one of the most enduring reality shows about farmers looking for the great love. One might think that this film has hit a sensitive chord, if it had influenced a reality program that made couples possible and families. Not bad for a directorial debut.

This is a charming story of unlikely companions cast together by circumstance and hard choices. It is interesting to see how the protagonists use their situation, once they have committed initially to their self interests, to pay each other back, and with love and compassion eventually find what they do not expect. Each phase of this progression is clearly imprinted in the viewer's experience from both points of view in a very patient, but not slow, immersion into the characters' hearts and psyches. The effect of this is to erase the viewer's point of view and leave the audience with a memorable impression of the whole, which is beautiful to behold.

I can't rate this film because I saw only about the first half of it on a flight back from Paris. What I saw I loved.

Comedy doesn't travel well. I'm an American, dyed in the wool, and I normally find French comedy annoying--self-conscious and stilted. This movie, however, is funny, and I give most of the credit to Michel Blanc. He is subtly hilarious as the single-minded rube trying to replace his dead wife-cum-farmhand-cum-cook-cum-housekeeper the way you or I might try to replace a pair of comfortable old shoes with new ones. He just can't make the clerk understand.

I like hard comedy--vicious satire, outrageous parody, clever wordplay--and this movie is none of those. It could hardly be more conventional. The plot is that of a TV sitcom episode, and the script is studied and tame. Still, I laughed out loud every few minutes, and taking into account jet lag and nicotine deprivation, that's saying something.

I hadn't expect to like this movie. It deals with things from my country I desperately wanted to escape from - lack of money, desperation, the small price a woman can ask for herself. And I hadn't really liked a Romanian movie eversince I was a child and I was watching silly communist movies. But this movie had good credentials and people close to me had enjoyed it, so when I had the chance I watched it, first with prejudiced disgust, then with interest and at the end with emotion. It is a lovely movie, about not so lovely people that in the end turn out to be just fabulous. It is the first movie about ugly Romania that I actually enjoyed watching. I am grateful for that.

This is a nice romantic comedy about a French farmer who needs a wife (or cheap labourer) to run his farm, and who gets hitched to a young Romanian girl who needs money to raise her daughter.

The big problem with this movie is that the girl is tragically miscast. She is played by a talented young actress, who unfortunately can't patch over the fact that she is so painfully clearly out of her love interest's league. She's one of those surreally waifish girls the French adore so much. It's a case of the beauty and the beast, and it just doesn't hold water. Apart from that, a good movie. Until the farmer's visit to Romania to pick up his wife, it's a hilarious comedy, after that it's a complex (if implausible), and surprisingly intriguing, love story.

Michel Blanc is brilliant in a very difficult role. He's at the same time pompous and boyish, and would be the ideal match for an unlikely love story.

The unsung star of this movie is the entremetteuse, Eva Darlan. She is vivacious, beautiful and terribly funny. The movie loses a lot when she drops out of the plot. I think she would have been a much better, and not least much more credible, Elena.

Another problem with this movie is that they picked Romania as the rent-a-bride's country of origin. Fifteen years ago this would have been believable. Nowadays everybody knows that Romania isn't so bad as to make pretty girls so desperate to leave it that they'd gladly hitch up to a middle-aged French hillbilly. I don't understand why the writer didn't pick a more exotic and desperate country, Albania maybe or Ossietia or whatever.

If you're looking for humour and don't mind a hefty dollop of implausible romance, this is your movie.