La femme de mon pote

Released in 1983, "My Best Friend's Girl" is a French film about two best friends at a ski resort in the French Alps. The friends are Micky (Coluche), an average-looking nightclub DJ, and Pascal (Thierry Lhermitte), the tall/handsome dude who owns the resort. Pascal falls in love-at-first-sight with a woman, Vivian (Isabelle Huppert) and immediately has her move-in with him. Micky objects but finds himself falling for her as well. Will Micky betray his best friend by messing with his girl?

As an early-80s romcom, "My Best Friend's Girl" is much different than an American romcom from the same period. Most North Americans wouldn't like it because it's curious by comparison, but I found it compelling enough once I got used to its unique tone and the English subtitles, which are sometimes hard to read because they're white and often appear over a white backdrop, like snow.

Speaking of snow, that's one of the main reasons I was interested in checking out this obscure European flick, since it takes place completely at a ski resort and was shot on location in Courchevel, Savoie, France. However, that's solely the backdrop as we never see the protagonists skiing. In fact, the entire film is them babbling back-in-forth as Vivian uses her womanly powers to charm the best friends.

At one point Micky blatantly asks Vivian why she's such a tramp and she responds by saying that she started real young and has no moral hang-ups about being faithful to someone who's just a boyfriend. Personally, I find her promiscuity immoral, but it's clear at one point that she loves someone you wouldn't expect her to love, which reveals character. Moreover, the ending offers hope for positive change. In any case, Huppert is excellent as the alluring Vivian, but she's not curvy enough for my tastes. Regardless, the movie showcases the incredible powers that a woman can wield.

The film runs 99 minutes.

GRADE: B-

This is a style in which the French somehow specialize themselves, the dramatic comedy: The movies looks like humorous, light stuff, with the happily drawn poster (another French speciality), fun premise and renowned comedy actors, then after at best 20 minutes of discutable humor, becomes an intense, draining emotional drama.

And yet that's a Bertrand Blier movie, right there - but maybe his lesser one. To me, the reason is simple - the whole filming have been difficult, due to the suicide of Patrick Dewaere, the actor wanted for what became Lhermitte' part. With a tortured Coluche taking away Dewaere's girlfriend shortly before his death, the situation on the set was ressembling the one on the scenario way too much for comfort. As a result, Coluche was somewhat absent in the movie. You can feel every actor having a bad time, except maybe Huppert, who shines.

It needs to be said, because you can be renting this as you need a bit of laugh, then face an un-expected emotional down well transmitted by the actors and the scenario. Ah well.

Apart for that the technical aspects were good and bla bla bla, you know.

I was bowled over by the performance of Isabelle Huppert in Coup de Foudre (1983). So I rented this film for 99-cents from my local vid shop to get the chance to see her again. I got my dollar's worth from my Isabelle Huppert fix, the movie could have been better. I'm sure the filmmaker thought he had plenty of interesting elements to work with here: two best friends (Pascal works all day, Mickey is a DJ at night) fall for the same girl, Viviane, and the setting - the action takes place at a ski resort (the play of warm sunshine despite the cold snow, the interplay of skiers ascending the mountain via tow ropes right in front of Pascal's house, etc.) Pascal is the cave man, an ex-jock whose interests include food, shelter (preferably sharing his bed with a warm woman), and nice clothes. Mickey is more evolved but is beset with self doubts and has trouble with his conscience. Viviane is a free spirit whose sexual experiences started at an early age. Sex is not a moral issue for her and it is something she is good at. The characters are drawn so thinly that you can watch the action, but not really believe or accept it. White subtitles are nasty superimposed on the snow. And I still don't know what Mickey was supposed to do with Pascal's present from Paris.

This is the very definition of a "nothing happens" movie; it sets up its premise in the first 10 minutes, and then has nowhere to go in the remaining 90. Pleasing snowbound-mountains scenery and a sexier-than-usual Isabelle Huppert cannot make up for the exceeding thinness of the story. ** out of 4.