Après vous...

"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.

Daniel Auteuil is always good value. One of France's top actors he is the master of understatement, telling us more by facial expression and body language than words ever could. However, I think he was sold short by this movie where the other characters, with one exception, were poorly drawn. Without spoiling - he rescues a man about to hang himself because his girlfriend has left him, and becomes entangled in this man's life. But there was nothing about either the guy or his girlfriend which merited someone going out of their way to help. Both totally lacked charisma, Blanche particularly was one of those women you simply want to shake in an effort to get some sort of personality into her.

Louis needed a smart punch in the mouth and frankly, when Antoine finally got to the end of his tether with the guy's stupidity and weaknesses, I was looking forward to that as the high spot of the movie.

Nothing could have upstaged the marvellous André Tainsy though, who died only a few months after this film was released, aged 93. She was une trésor absolue, carrying off her role with finesse, incredible humour, so understated - and total aplomb.

It is a funny film (and if you know Fawlty Towers, it's in that vein) in an excruciatingly painful way where you just know everything is going to go wrong and there are a couple of laugh-aloud moments but given the mood throughout, it has the unlikeliest ending you could imagine.

Brilliant music by Camille Bazbaz all the way through and if nothing else his 'Papa Tango Charlie' should have been a massive hit.

This has to be, no contest, the best restaurant-based movie since Claude Sautet persuaded Yves Montand and Jacques Villeret to don monkey suits for 'Garcon'. They get the mix just right between humor and pathos and although it's based on a dubious premise for the 21st century - maitre d' Auteuil spots Garcia trying to top himself, intervenes and then, against all the odds of cynicism, feels obliged to 'adopt' him and straighten out his life - it still works. This straightening out includes fixing up klux Garcia with a job as sommelier at Auteuil's restaurant which means in turn that Garcia must compete in an interview/audition with people who have actually worked as sommeliers. Given that Garcia knows as much about wine as Ludivine Sagnier knows about acting with her clothes on the audition is a hoot, with Auteuil, sitting in, natch, on the interview and attempting to coach Garcia surreptitiously. The main reason that Garcia was interested in running out of breath was the fact that he'd been dumped by a girl friend and nothing will do but that Auteuil must intervene once more and attempt to win back the ex-girl friend, who is now involved with someone else. Not unnaturally, Auteuil begins to fall in love with said girl friend which is not exactly hard given that she is played by Sandrine Kiberlain, a great actress with an elusive beauty which is hard to classify. She doesn't do chocolate-box like Audrey Tautou, she doesn't do chic like Catherine Deneuve, she doesn't do warmth like Isabelle Huppert and Fanny Ardant and she most certainly doesn't do slut like Ludivine Sagnier, whatever she does she does it to a fare-thee-well and if you don't believe me ask that swine Vincent Lindon, who married her before I could get there first (just kidding, Vince, you're a great actor yourself if anybody asks you but WHY did you have to take her off the market?). This complication gives the movie an extra fillip, a touch of the Cyrano de Bergeracs, with Auteuil pressing a claim for a guy who is now, to all intents and purposes, a rival, although unlike Cyrano, who has been in love with Roxanne all his life and is himself unattached, Auteuil is - or was - in a happy relationship until these life-changing events. All in all a very fine movie worth a couple of hours of anyone's time provided they are motivated by people and the Human Condition and not Matrix-type fx. 9/10

I saw this at the Phoenix Film Festival, almost by accident. My first choice for the time slot was full, and this would end in time to see my next screening, so I grabbed a seat as the lights went down.

A very pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed this movie, walking into it with out the slightest idea what it was about.

While the premise may not have been 100% original (man helps man get back the girl... but falls for her himself), I thought it was very well done. We should all wish to have friends as dedicated as Antoine, and we can all relate to Louis at some point in our lives.

While the movie may not have been hysterical, I found myself smiling or laughing most of the time. The end result wasn't completely unexpected, yet how they got there was a surprise to me, with the last gag being a nice touch.

Definitely recommend this film. Not one you'll discus what it means for hours, but one you should enjoy while you are there.

Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) is a head waiter in a chic Parisian restaurant and lives with his girlfriend Christine (Marilyne Canto). His work occupies a lot of place in his life. One evening, by going through a park to be more quickly at his apartment, he saves from suicide a neurotic man Louis (José Garcia). After vainly attempted to take him back to his close relatives, he takes him under his wing and succeeds to find him a job as a waiter in his workplace. Louis wanted to kill himself because his love affair with his ex girlfriend Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain) went unravel. Antoine found her again because he wants to reconcile them again. She's a charming florist and, you guess it he becomes enamored of her. From then onwards, his well-ordered life starts to showcase signs of poor running.

I'm a little surprised but glad to discover that this little high charged, hilarious comedy enjoys a small reputation abroad. About twenty reviews have already been posted for this film and most of them gave the movie thumbs up. I will post another positive one in spite of minor flaws Pierre Salvadori's film showcases.

Some will be probably surprised but the outset reminded me of Jean Renoir's classic "Boudu Sauvé Des Eaux" (1932), perhaps because of the quite prestigious situation the main protagonists of the films occupy and maybe also because they save from suicide ill-fated men who are cracking up. And then, the saved ones immerse themselves in their rescuers' lives and disrupt their living environment. But although both movies are comedies, they don't belong to the same sub-category. Pierre Salvadori preferred not to follow the steps of the master which bestowed his own work with a strong social satire whiff. There's no trace of it in "Après Vous", although there may be an inkling of it in the following sequence: when Antoine takes Louis in the cellar and shows him the names of the different wines. Louis is afraid not to recognize the right wines and I think that Antoine answers him the customers ape the connoisseurs and don't know anything about wines. The director preferred to choose the road of the sentimental comedy and to especially focus on Antoine's turbulent love life.

Pierre Salvadori commands his film at arm's length and delays the most momentous moment of the movie (the meeting between Louis and Blanche) to better linger on Louis' new life and especially on Antoine's love trouble. In a way, by making Louis work in his restaurant, by undertaking to reconcile him with Blanche and unfortunately by having a crush on her, he is a victim of his generosity. And Louis doesn't really realize the situations in which he puts Antoine. There's a funny sequence around the beginning of the film during which Antoine is at Louis' grandmother's and tries to alter Louis' suicide note in a placating, comforting letter. Then, deep down inside him, he thinks of leaving his ex girlfriend to live with Blanche and has to lie to his protégé and circle not to arouse suspicion about his real motivations. The movie becomes very enjoyable when it accumulates misunderstandings and embarrassing situations linked with Louis' job as a waiter or Antoine's sentimental trouble which the latter tries to escape by hilarious means (check the sequences in the Chinese restaurant). The scenario is also interspersed with droll lines: "how do you find the chicken? Dead".

A threesome of actors serves the film. Daniel Auteuil is able to provide enough caliber to his character to watch the film until the tail end and I would like to congratulate the user "writer's reign" for the tasty pun he inserted in his review: "maitre d'Auteuil". José Garcia who earlier showed in his career that he could hold comical as well as dramatic roles (Philippe Harel's "Extension Du Domaine De la Lutte, 1999) shines as the neurotic, wound up Louis, indirectly responsible of Antoine's mishaps. At last, Sandrine Kiberlain, a little frail, naive but the director never ridicules her. She was ideally cast as Blanche. In French, this name is also an adjective which means white and the actress has a somewhat pallid face which suits well to both the name and the personality of her character.

If the director honed his work with a palpable painstaking care for much of his work, there are little setbacks towards the end of the road. The end is thoroughly unexpected but was made in a rush and the trick of the lighter has been seen many times before. But these flaws aren't major enough to reject Salvadori's film. So, "Après Vous" and enjoy your film!