Un fil à la patte

Three stars because it has Emmanuelle Beart, surely the most beautiful actress in cinema today, and talented too, in the right film - but this is not it.

This movie looks and plays like an amateur dramatic production you'd see in a village hall, which is very disappointing given the pedigree of the cast. Beart is always worth watching, sometimes mesmerising; Berling is a fine actor in the right role, but I got the impression after about 3 minutes that both were in this for the paycheck and not much else. A bit embarrassing for both of them, really, especially for Berling who is reduced to running around naked at one point! Check it out if you're a die-hard Beart fan, but don't bother otherwise.

This film is actually an 'opéra-bouffe' in filmmaking. I must say it takes the taste for the Feydeau's kind and the Belle Epoque to love the movie. But in the genre, it is very successful. The actors play really well, keeping the strong pace and freshness typical of opéra-bouffe. I was surprised and delighted to see Emmanuelle Béart so comfortable in the role and its lines. She really embodies the typical Belle Epoque beautiful lady whom all the gentlemen turn around with the decorous gallantry of the times. Were my grandfather still alive, I should still see him doubled up with laughter and fun in the middle of this world of his thirties.

I have played Feydeau on stage and he's a great playwright of his kind. However, something in this film is not working. Although the play is great (the adaptation maybe went too far away from it), and Charles Berling a great actor (one of my favourite ones), "un fil à la patte" is really bad. I was really disappointed by the lack of subtlety in the dialogues, feydeau's humour seems to have been swept away, and sexuality is certainly not described in a subtle and humorous way, but more in a voyeuristic manner, which i don't criticize here, but it's just so not feydeau! you leave the cinema with the feeling of a failure, something that could have been so funny and clever, but is just disappointingly bad.