Après vous...

I went to the film because I had just come back from a first-time trip to Paris and I could translate what Apres Vous meant. Well, what a wonderful experience! Refreshing, surprising, beautifully underplayed humor, a lovely farce as only the French can do. Reminds me of the old Comedy of Manners from Sheridan's time. Well written, well directed and well acted. Congratulations. And that soundtrack "Allo Papa Tango Charly" is just stuck in my head - I found it's a Mort Schuman tune from 1977, but can't pick up the soundtrack anywhere, even on the official site! Anyone got access to it? I can more or less translate the lyrics from my school days, but would like to come across a literal translation if anyone has it.

I think I might have to go again, just for the song! The food shown at Chez Jean's reminded me so much of the lovely food we had every day in Paris.

A very welcome afternoon at the Cinema.

Jack.

"Après vous..." is a gentle, screwball cross between "Cyrano" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," or, more accurately probably, its French progenitor "Boudu sauvé des eaux."

Daniel Auteuil very expressively plays a much put upon Good Samaritan, whose life and identity get more and more entangled with the object of his personal philanthropy. While the employment and romantic lengths that he goes to in helping his hapless beneficiary, who shares some foibles with TV's Monk, stretch believability, he is very amusing and certainly the viewer gets as caught up as he is in the ensuing complications, even if they do seem a bit endless.

One of its charms is that all the characters have saving graces. Unlike similar American movies, characters who are in the way of the inevitable are not shrill and the screenplay, co-written by director Pierre Salvadori, is not mean or condescending to them, as there is equal poignancy and laughter.

There may be additional jokes about French restaurants and cuisine that lose something in the U.S. as this is almost as much a restaurant movie as "Dinner Rush" or "Big Night." The English subtitles, when they are not white on white, have poor grammar and spelling, including inconsistency of a character's name.

The repeating amusing sounding pop tunes on the soundtrack seem to have some significance, but the lyrics are not translated.

It seems when it comes to romantic comedies the French have the corner on the market and technique. APRES VOUS is a bit of pastiche with a storyline that borders on absurd, but in the hands of director Pierre Salvadori it becomes not only an enjoyable farce, but also a tender little statement about compassion.

Antoine (Daniel Anteuil) is the fastidious and ultra compassionate manager of a high-class restaurant who bends over backwards for his staff, his patrons, and anybody who crosses his path who appears needy. He ends up making his girlfriend Christine (Marilyne Canto) take second place to his humanitarian concerns and this puts a strain on his relationship. One evening in a rush to meet Christine he encounters Louis (José Garcia) who is in the process of hanging himself in the park, his desired finale to a life of frustration and loss of his girlfriend Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain). Naturally Antoine rescues him, feeds him, even brings him home, all the while putting his life on hold to help Louis heal his wounds. Louis is most concerned about the loss of Blanche and Antoine immediately commits his efforts to find her, woo her back for Louis (including revealing Blanche's current boyfriend's infidelity) - but in the process there develops a mutual attraction between Antoine and Blanche! Antoine arranges for Louis to get a job at his restaurant despite Louis' depression and lack of training. Just when everything seems to be turning out for the best, Christine leaves Antoine, and the circumstances surrounding Antoine's salvage of Louis' life change and the ending is somewhat of a French twist! The acting is fine, the pacing is fine, the only problem is with the characters themselves: we soon tire of Antoine's absurd selflessness and Louis' nerdy helplessness and that hampers the identification with these characters. Other than that the film is a brisk, sweet little French farce that leaves you humming. Grady Harp

Après vous (2003), directed by Pierre Salvadori, has the same basic plot as Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932). In both films, someone saves the life of a person. This person then causes endless problems for the rescuer.

Daniel Auteuil (Antoine) is the senior waiter in an elegant restaurant in Paris. He's skilled and respected at work, and has a wonderful girlfriend named Christine (Marilyne Canto). Antoine has the misfortune of saving Louis (José Garcia) from death by suicide.

Louis is a loser in life and in romance. He has attempted suicide because of his rejection by the love of his life, Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain).

All this takes place within the first ten minutes of the movie. The remainder of the film follows these four characters as they go down an amusing--but fairly predictable--road.

Certain things don't come together. For example, Blanche is considered the epitome of female virtues, but, other than her long, slender neck, I didn't see much that was attractive about her appearance or her personality.

The best scene in the film is that between Antoine and Louis' Grandmother. The late Andrée Tainsy was 92 (!) years old when she played this role.

This movie is not obnoxious, but it's far from a masterpiece. My suggestion--rent Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu Sauvé des Eaux) and watch how a master director handles a similar plot.

Although this film has a few funny moments, the general performance is flabby and leaves you frustrated and expecting better. There are two many scenes that are drawn out, and where you are waiting for the inevitable to happen but there it takes too long to arrive. The goods bits are the audition of José Garcia for the job in the restaurant, when Daniel Auteil takes to the booze and some of the scenes where they are prowling around Blanche's house. The actors are all pleasant to watch, even the lady restaurant owner, and this to some extent saves the film but I came away from it with an overall feeling of frustration at having sat through a relatively long period to get so few laughs. I can't see this film having ANY success outside France and even here, from what I can gather by asking around, it doesn't appear to have been a major success. Pity, because the makings of something better are definitely there and the plot could have been developed with further qui-pro-quo's to make it spicier !