Palais royal!

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 !

Awful, awful, and awful ! Even worse than " Brice of Nice" ... Even worse than " Arbres" ... Not even a glimpse of interest ! Vulgar, rogue, ... The only consolation I had was to see it on a DVD . Wasting ten dollars for such a crap in a theater would have been just unbearable !!!!!! I you want to see a Valerie Lemercier at her best, pass your way on Palais Royal and try to find the one and only " The Visitors" DVD one of my funniest movies! Actually, speaking of "Palais Royal", I really don't understand how such good actors like Denis Podalydes or Valerie Lemercier herself have accepted to play in such a movie. Oh, sorry, I was forgetting : Valerie Lemercier is the Director ! As a lesson, good actors don't always mean good film makers.

MutantMutton

This is, of course, a comedy. So, let's talk funny: three testicles theme, the whole Deneuve character, the opening London sequence, personal trainer guy - very funny. The whole thing is a bit long, but quite enjoyable. I'm just wondering if they also ridicule the Belge (the only French-speaking continental people with royalty), as it goes along, but I don't know French enough to catch the nuances. One interesting quality - since it is a poke at the English, the humour is very held-back (not the usual French buffonade), easily the "English gentlemen"-like comic routine, perfectly in line with stuff like the "Stiff upper lip". I guess it is THE stylistic gimmick used here, apart from the obvious Diana satire, to our delight.

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.

Reviewer destinationssecretes sums it up well: vulgar and rogue. And pedestrian... Deneuve is excellent though. Lemercier can be pretty funny if directed well, that is obviously here, not by her own self...