La Dilettante

The Dilettante is a strange tale about Pierrette Dumortier (Catherine Frot) a woman who never takes things seriously. She sails through life taking the good and the bad as they happen, from place to place, work to work, or lover to lover. This rather original character is played in her oddly cheerful way by the excellent Catherine Frot. We never know who Pierrette really is, though people tend to react strongly (positively or negatively) to her presence. Perhaps the very fact that she never seems to care (only toward the end of the movie, during a very intense moment) makes it difficult for the viewer to care for her, but the movie is intriguing enough, sometimes genuinely funny, and Catherine Frot's acting is at her best.

This film truly is remarkable in that what promises to be a pleasant time turns into a riot. I laughed out loud more at this film than I have at any in years. Catherine Frot does a marvelous job as Pierrette and Pascal Thomas gives us a film that is refreshing in that, contrary to seemingly all American films, does not pander to the audience. We aren't given a lengthy exposition in which we learn everything up-to-date on the characters: we're simply thrown in the middle of the action and need to use our head to find our bearings. Let's pray this film gets distributed in the US.

Pascal Thomas never failed, his movies are always pieces of life with bigger than life characters. If you liked "pleure pas la bouche pleine", "le chaud lapin", "celles qu'on n'a pas eues" or "les femmes les maris les amants", well you'll like "La dilettante" too. I never really noticed Catherine Frot (who plays the lead character Pierrette). For me she was one of a hundred faces that we can cross in french cinema. I was sure she was a good actress but nothing more than that. In "La Dilettante" she explodes, her character is complex, with a mix of impudor and decency, quietness and madness... I'm not sure that a lot of people could play that and bring to life a such character. But Catherine Frot is not alone here. Famous or unknown faces perform extraordinary scenes, like JF Balmer as the president of a Trial court who is afraid to get bored... Pascal Thomas makes fun of the comedy of our lives. Once again. His characters are bought to life by their extraordinary well written lines and by the actors perfect work. Once again. I'll definitely give it a 10/10 even if there is a very very light lack of rhythm sometimes.

If you're searching for stereotypes, superficial characters, stupid lines and extreme poverty in the art of film making (directing and photography taste like bad french commercials), this movie is for you. True that Catherine Frot has a good energy, but how could she save by herself this so-called film from its emptiness ?