FFF: Paris-Manhattan review

Posted by lisathatcher on March 10, 2012 in Film Reviews | 5 Comments

I saw this little flick tonight at the French film Festival.

OK – It’s not the Charlotte Rampling documentary, nor is the final night screening of Francois Truffaut’s The Last Metro (how much do you think I can’t wait for THAT one!!) but it was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. This is a rom com French style – which basically means the acting is better, the script is better, it subverts the genre very slightly and pokes fun at itself.

This is what I love about this sort of French film. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite the fact that it is well made. Sophie Lellouche has made a very nice flick here, and that is really all there is to say.

Hot on the heels of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, comes this very cute little tribute flick. Dreamy pharmacist Alice (Alice Taglioni) is totally obsessed with the works of Woody Allen. She surrounds herself with images of him, continually quotes lines from his films and even prescribes her customers DVDs of his movies to help alleviate their ailments; it’s little wonder she’s still single in her thirties! Alice’s increasingly concerned family hopes to cure her fixation by setting her up with a handsome French gentleman (Patrick Bruel), but even he quickly realises that he’s no match for the man of her dreams.

Woody Allen informs every aspect of this film, including the voice over of himself and appearing in it. Alice turns to the famous director for advice on everything important in her life (and receives classic Woody Allen feedback like “no one in Brooklyn ever committed suicide. We were too depressed.”) and pretty much everything that is not important in her life. She lives with a giant poster of Woody Allen in her lounge room and tells men who fall for her she loves him because he is so good-looking (!).

This is a light-hearted commentary about the love affair between Allen and Paris, Paris and Allen.  It’s also a rom com with the kind of happy ending only celluloid can deliver. This will be making the rounds soon enough, so I won’t give away the detail as I am wont to do in my other reviews. I’ll simply say this:  If you like a good Rom Com that is well written, laugh out loud funny at times, set on the streets of Paris with a dash of Woody Allen – this is the film for you. Not what I would call a classic, but certainly a competently made fun film.

This film had its international premier at this film festival, and I can’t even find a trailer for it yet – will add it here as soon as I can.