Palais royal!

PALAIS ROYAL!

The opening night movie of a well-attended film series tends to be something lightweight and a bit glitzy that's designed to be a deliberate crowd-pleaser, and the gala opener of the 2006 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Today at Lincoln Center -- a film featuring Catherine Deneuve as a haughty queen mother -- is an elaborate, sometimes vulgar and slapstick, but mostly fluffy comedy about a principality like Monaco or Luxembourg and the things that happen when its ruler suddenly dies. The late king's spoiled second son ascends to the throne bypassing his more serious, well-educated older brother because the latter isn't married. Arnaud's do-gooder wife (played by the writer/director, French comic Valérie Lemercier, a popular French comedienne more known in the US for starring in Claire Denis's well received and serious sexual adventure Friday Night/Vendredi soir).

Lemercier's character gradually turns into an ambitious new princess like Lady Di, and along with general laugh-manufacture, the film constitutes a satire on such behavior and the packaging and promoting of modern-day high-visibility "royals." There is no faulting the actors, and Deneuve is as droll as she's elegant, Lambert Wilson is stylish as the lazy new king, Michel Aumont is imposing as the chief of protocol and Michel Vuillermoz is appealing as the sad elder prince. But though Palais Royal! moves as rapidly as a comedy should, it's a bit hard to be interested in this theme at a time when people are starving and being tortured and real social gaps are between rich and poor, with a feudal aristocracy no longer a real issue.

We begin with future king, wife, and two best friends on a shopping spree in London, and there is nothing to like about these spoiled people – which of course is the point; and the French are good at doing grumpy, obnoxious snobs (Pierre Bakri in last year's Look at Me/Comme une image is a splendid example) – but this makes it hard to stay interested in these folks. It's also hard to read the subtitles, and I couldn't follow the fast "comic" dialogue. Probably only the French people in Alice Tully Hall were able to find that dialogue consistently funny, and only some of THEM. Clearly there was a lot of word-play that the subtitles, when one could read them, obviously was struggling to convey.

The glitzy fluff was there, there was fluency in the flow of the action, there was a satirical point of view, there were highly regarded actors. If it was hard to sit through this and make it to the wine and cheese and French celebrities, but since I was gearing up to watch all fifteen handpicked new French films in a row it still seemed like a pretty soft job.

(Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2006 opening night presentation, March 2006; Palais Royal! opened in Paris November 23, 2005.)

A great reinvention of the story of life and death of lady Diana Spencer. It takes place in imaginary French-speaking country of Western Europe. after the accidental death of the king his younger son has to take his place which makes his wife - a speech therapist Armelle, the potential queen. The current queen, francophone re-incarnation of Queen Elizabeth II (minus UGLY part), played by magnificent Catherine Deneuve, is not sure that this plain-looking awkward woman can bear the royal duties with dignity and clearly doesn't care about her. After series of misadventures, Armelle feels like she doesn't fit in the royal world and when she discovers her husband adultery, she decides to take revenge. She'll show them all who is the real queen of hearts! This comedy makes you laugh and cry. Catherine Deneuve looks stunning and parades in a real fashion show of outfits, wearing them with truly royal grace. The parallels with Lady Di story are in-your-face, but rather charming, because they are put in the continental French-speaking milieu.

Those of us who found the much-vaunted albeit slightly dubious charm of Princess Diana terminally elusive will revel in this delicious satire in which writer-director Valerie Lemercier captures perfectly that faux demureness and all too real touch of the retard about Diana. Lemercier, who is much more lovely and desirable than Diana ever was, is right on the nose with her characterisation developing it naturally from the gauche, naive speech therapist who lucked into a Prince (Lambert Wilson)who, as the second son - shades of 'Bertie' aka George the Sixth - had no realistic claim to the throne but did have an elder brother who might be a Prince but would never make sperm Count so that when the King dies unexpectedly Wilson finds himself the new reigning Monarch and Lemercier by extension becomes Queen. Ever-so-slowly the moth becomes a social butterfly and Lemercier's genius is that she can makes us wince/reach for the sick-bag as Armelle is incapable of passing a Black child or a Senior Citizen without summoning the photographers and posing winsomely, yet sympathize with her rebellion against Royal protocol/chastisement as personified and practiced by Catherine Deneuve's Queen and Michel Aumont's Brother-in-law. The scene where Armelle gets a custard pie in the kisser will resonate with all those who longed to hurl just such a missile at the 'Queen of Hearts' as will many other scenes. By now, of course, I've lost half my readers but I urge the other half to seek out this gem as soon as possible.

Palais royal! is a fun little satire of royal courtly life loosely based on the tragic tale of Charles and Diana. Valérie Lemercier casts herself in the titular role of Armelle, the improbable and frumpy orthophonist wife of royal Prince Arnaud (Lambert Wilson) of some fictional generic Francophone European kingdom. Suddenly her father-in-law dies, and her brother-in-law Alban - Arnaud's elder - is rudely passed over for want of children, as required by the kingdom's fundamental laws. Arnaud becomes king regnant and Armelle queen consort, and much to her consternation their happy and privileged but marginal life gives way to the full and taxing burdens of official duties and, of course, nasty courtly intrigues. When she realizes just how close to home these intrigues hit, Armelle transforms almost overnight, subtly planting traps exposing the two-facedness of those around her (including her two-timing husband as well as the vicious Queen Mother incarnated by Catherine Deneuve), all the while endearing herself to the people.

As Guy Bellinger says, her antics are a bit vulgar in and of themselves and this tempers the satire somewhat. And her metamorphosis is just a bit rapid. Nevertheless, even with the vulgarity I think they've managed to capture - albeit somewhat unintentionally - the full spectrum of Lady Di's own flaws, antics and resentments in an analogous, less beautiful and less glamorous but every bit as much energetic leading lady. The interiors of the royal couple's living spaces did, I must opine, leave much to be desired: at some points I felt I was looking at a flyer for a new subdivision of North American McMansions. The substance was a bit thin aganst the backdrop of what I know about royal protocol and life in general, although I didn't see any one thing I would deem "inaccurate" - just perhaps a bit reductionist or incomplete.

It's entertaining, however, and worth seeing for the performances. If you don't sympathize with the characters despite their obvious flaws, though, it will be difficult to sit through to the end (which does, I feel, come a bit quick).

First of all, I am a huge fan of Valérie Lemercier! She's been entertaining us for nearly 20 years and she's still surprising us yet. "Palais Royal !" is her third work as a director, and it is the funniest. Her previous two efforts were good, but with this one, she proves herself as a great writer.

The storyline is very simple : After the King dies, her husband (played by the always classy Lambert Wilson) is destined to take the crown, and her to become part of a world she doesn't really know of. As you can see, the plot is very basic, but what shows Lemercier's cleverness is her ability to laugh at the clichés and the explore every little details of her characters. Her screenplay is full of subtle jokes and plays of words - some can regret that a few jokes are a bit... vulgar, but always very funny if you can understand the double meanings.

As for the actors, we have a royal cast here: Queen Catherine Deneuve (who's never been so funny), the sarcastic Michel Aumont and the hilarious Gilbert Melki, among others (all are very good). Last but not least, Valerie Lemercier shows us one more time she's a gifted actress by handling all the versatility of her character.

"Palais Royal !" is the best French comedy of the year !