Hors de prix

I loved this movie. The cast was well acted, the relationships kept me at the edge of my seat as there were always suspense and thrills with every single relationship and this includes the spotlight characters. Every actor's facial expressions, not outcasting the supporting roles were so well acted that every one had me guessing, worrying the conditions of the relationships every second.

This is a great break away from Hollywood comedies/romance movies these days and it gives me great relief that great films like this still exists! So, if you've gotten used to movies filled with senseless sex, random nudity-all the ingredients of these days' plot less "romantic teen comedies", you wouldn't like this movie.

That having said, loved Audrey Tatou's acting-AS ALWAYS. She made me hate her guts in the beginning, then sympathize with her, feel happy for her, as she discovers and attempts to claim her love.

I've just been introduced to Gad and truthfully, I was really not looking forward to seeing him in it because he looks too skinny, his features too pointedly brought together to be instantly attractive for a romantic role like this. And, this is the case in the beginning. However, he surprises me as time progresses-and I unconsciously got sucked into his talented, fabulous acting. Now all I can see is a foxy, sexy guy with a lot of wits who can melt any female in a second.

Overall this is a great film about relationships, discovery, interaction between realistic people, human values that are often taken for granted and forgotten these days, altogether stringed with sweet icings of hysterical laughters from easy humour, not to mention loveeee and romannceee!!

The film grants you 1 hour and 40 minutes of pleasure and fun, watching how the sparkling champagne girl Audrey Tautou polishes up the rough cub presented by Gad Elmaleh, an actor who in his own strange way possesses some kind of irresistible charm. It is also amazing how easy and encouragingly the movie interprets the profession of a modern hooker, turning it into a free-and-easy glamorous lifestyle.

Hors de prix is a commercial entertainment; however, it is undoubtedly a well done piece of art. Let's not forget that more or less everyone is able to make an original authorfilm, whilst it takes an effort to create a genre work of quality. I am thankful to the director who has convinced me that there still are some people who live and love truly and do not hesitate to give their last Euro away to buy ten seconds of happiness.

Audrey Tatou is stunning, giving a complex performance as the sexy, conniving, vulnerable and ready to love Irène. The character is a gold-digger reminiscent of that other Audrey, Hepburn, in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Priceless manages to achieve the same tension of elegance and decadence, playful banter and fraught undertones. There is something very dark about the scene where Irène, dumped by her latest rich beau, and left literally with only the bikini she has on, sits shivering at poolside while the sun sets and the place chances from bathers to dinner jackets. In an instant she goes from queen of her arena to a spectator. It is a complex tone shift few Hollywood (or British) rom-coms manage to attempt, never mind pull off.

Gad Elmaleh as Jean is perfectly love-struck and versatile. Strong support comes from Marie-Christine Adam as the hard but equally self-deluding Madeleine, and Vernon Dobtcheff as Irène's first victim, Jacques. There is something quite grown-up and yet naively innocent about this film, with characters who can do the most awful things but never enough to stop you caring about them. Vivid colour palette, and slickly shot, the music works well, too. Well worth seeing.

This is a classic case of moral ambivalence. Audrey Tautou, hypnotising us as usual with her big soulful eyes, plays someone of less than salubrious character, in fact a totally amoral gold-digger. The film is actually a study of gold-digging. Gad Elmaleh is the hapless intoxicant, drowning in the beauty of Audrey, a kind of Tautouholic, and who cannot understand that? So he starts out straight and gets sucked into this world of sell yourself for cash, and sticks with it because while they are in the same luxury hotels being paid to be sex toys by rich older people, he gets to spend his spare moments with her. The girlie friendship between them as prostitute colleagues drives him crazy because he loves her, but it is the only way he can be near her. The film has many hilarious moments, if being a prostitute is hilarious, and the story is about whether Audrey will discover what is 'beyond price', namely that thing called love. Audrey's talent for mania comes out especially in the scene where she goes wild with lust for a new dress which she sees for sale. She wants money, she wants things, and ultimately this is a morality tale about whether she can get beyond these delusions. Elmaleh was an excellent choice for the fellow, and he does a superb job in being sensitive and befuddled as he does what a man has gotta do to hang in there somehow. Will she crack? Audrey meanwhile exudes waves of warmth and creates a real individual out of someone who could so easily have been a cardboard cutout character. The screen is awash with her charm, one wants to wade out into that surf, like Elmaleh, knowing that one could easily drown. Will he? Does he? I'm not going to tell. Notch up one more irresistible vehicle for Audrey Tautou as she continues her march through unmissable film after film. But the mystery as to who and what she is deepens, because the more she is exposed to our view, the less we can really see of her, as she is the ultimate chamaeleon, of whom we will always know a diminishing amount as she progressively turns herself into a legend.

Last night my girlfriend dragged me to a chick flick. Fortunately for me, my girl has pretty good taste and it happened to be a French chick flick. Priceless doesn't redefine the genre, but it does prove most European mainstream films have a lot more going for them than most mainstream American films.

"Love conquers all" is certainly not an original theme, yet clichéd or not, this telling feels both fresh and intelligent. Whereas American chick flicks portray women as lonely, hopeless and dying to meet Mr. Right, Priceless establishes its female lead as anything but. Audrey Tautou's Irène is an icy predator, a materialistic bitch with no redeeming qualities other than a great body every designer dress she dons showcases. Here the male lead Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is the hapless and hopeless romantic, who is desperate to melt the ice queen's heart. While this setup might call to mind the Coen Brother's Intolerable Cruelty, it doesn't suffer from IC's achilles heel: aping the films it was inspired by. The Coen's film is an all too obvious tribute to Howard Hawk's screwball romantic comedies, so much so, their respect for Hawk's becomes the very crutch that renders IC lame. Priceless also pays respect to classic French comedies (ie. the films of Louis de Funès and Jacques Tati) but, unlike IC, it never gets bogged down by its influences. Priceless manages to make the old seem new and it is buoyed by its charm, its nuanced writing and the performances of the two leads.

Gad Elmaleh who plays the naïve Jean, not only nails every bit of physical comedy assigned to him, but he also provides Priceless with its heart. You can't help but feel his pain as you see in his eyes the heartache and humiliation inflicted upon him by Tautou's Irène. Throughout the film Elmaleh effortlessly expresses a wide range of emotions and even though the comedy is, at times, broad it never feels contrived and always feels natural.

I'm not going to go over the top and call this a masterpiece, but if you've got to sacrifice some blood and sit through a chick flick after subjecting your better half to a Herzog marathon (as I recently did), then Priceless is the perfect choice.