Pierre Salvadori
A woman who has never had much trouble choosing between love or money tries to teach a man the tricks of the trade in this sly romantic comedy. Irène (Audrey Tautou) is an attractive thirtysomething woman who lives a comfortable life by taking up with older and very wealthy men. Irène is serving as arm candy for Jacques (Vernon Dobtcheff), who is twice her age and quite rich; Jacques takes Irène on a vacation to a resort in the French Riviera for her birthday, where she meets Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a handsome bartender at the hotel who works a variety of odd jobs to keep himself afloat. While Jacques spends Irène's birthday sound asleep, she ends up enjoying a romantic evening with Jean, until she discovers he's broke. A year later, Jacques and Irène return to the resort, and Jean discovers he still carries a torch for her. Irène is not so interested until Jacques decides he's had enough of her and breaks off their relationship; suddenly forced to fend for herself, Irène turns to Jean for help. Jean, meanwhile, has learned that Madeleine (Marie-Christine Adam), a handsome and very well-to-do widow in her sixties, has her eye on him and wishes to make Jean her kept man. Jean asks Irène to give him a crash course in the fine art of being a gigolo, while Irène tries to get back in the game by taking up with Gilles (Jacques Spiesser). Slowly but surely, Irène and Jean realize how much they care for one another, but can they get learn to live the good life without money? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh, (more)
Antoine (Daniel Auteuil of The Closet), the busy manager of a fancy restaurant, cuts through a park in his rush to meet his frustrated girlfriend, Christine (Marilyne Canto), when he stumbles across Louis (José Garcia) attempting to hang himself. Antoine foils his efforts and takes the intensely phobic, despondent klutz home, much to Christine's chagrin. Lovesick Louis recalls that he's sent his "suicide note" to his elderly grandparents, so Antoine goes with him to intercept the letter. Antoine finds himself taking responsibility for Louis' life, getting him a job as a sommelier at the restaurant (despite his total lack of knowledge about wine and his nervousness around strangers) and going to visit Louis' ex-girlfriend, Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain of Alias Betty), a florist, and the cause of his heartbreak. Antoine finds that Blanche has a new boyfriend, and cunningly arranges for her to discover his infidelity. But when he offers Blanche comfort, she begins to feel drawn to him. With Antoine's encouragement, Louis gradually develops a newfound confidence, dressing better and excelling at work, all with an eye toward winning Blanche back. Antoine, meanwhile, is falling apart as he gets more involved in trying to fix Louis' life. Christine breaks up with him, and he struggles to hold it together at work. Worse yet, he finds himself increasingly attracted to Blanche, and conflicted in his allegiance to Louis. Pierre Salvadori's romantic farce Après vous... was shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendezvous With French Cinema in 2004. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, José Garcia, (more)
- 2000
A group of twenty-something bohemians fall into a life of crime that's more dangerous than they imagined in this drama from France. Alain (Serge Raiboukine) runs Le Detour, a small cafe in Paris where Antoine (Mathieu Demy) works. Antoine is reunited with his sister Marie (Marina Golovine) when she's released from prison; they are very close, perhaps abnormally so, but she's not aware that Antoine has fallen into cahoots with Stephane (Guillaume Depardieu), who works as a waiter at another cafe. Damien (Robert Castel), a local businessman, is pressuring Alain to expand Le Detour, and cut his nephew Xavier (Patrick Lizana) in for a percentage as a manager. While Alain waffles on Damien's proposal, Xavier offers Antoine a chance to make some money under the table by delivering some drugs to a cadre of dealers. Antoine makes the drop and picks up the payment, but runs off with the money rather than bringing it back to Xavier, which proves to have tragic consequences for Antoine and his friends. Les Marchands De Sable is the fourth feature film from writer and director Pierre Salvadori; his previous three films also featured Serge Raiboukine and Guillaume Depardieu. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Castel, Serge Riaboukine, (more)
- 1998
Pierre Salvadori, who made The Apprentices (1995) and Wild Target (1993), returned for his third feature with this quirky comedy filmed in Paris and Corsica. After an argument with her fiancé, Jeanne (Marie Trintignant) flies to Paris, talks her way into someone else's chauffeured limo, sleeps with a guy she picks up, is hired to deliver pizzas, works as a tea-salon waitress, creates lies about her wealthy family, and goes home with elderly Madeleine (Blanchette Brunoy), who accepts her as an au pair. Clean-cut crook Antoine (Guillaume Depardieu) takes both women to dinner, while burglar Barnaby (Serge Riaboukine) robs Madeleine's house. Madeleine mentions Jeanne's rich parents, prompting Antoine to join with Marcel (Jean-Francois Stevenin) in a scheme to collect a ransom on Jeanne. But the plan begins to collapse when Jeanne and Antoine find they are attracted to each other. The original French title is part of the French phrase "elle ment comme elle respire" ("lying comes to her as naturally as breathing"). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Trintignant, Guillaume Depardieu, (more)
Different aspects of homosexual romance are explored in this compendium of short vignettes. The film is designed as sort of a gay version of 1994's 3,000 Scenarios to Combat a Virus, an anthology that was comprised of 30 short films -- made by some of France's best directors -- out of story ideas submitted by school children on ways to deal with the AIDS virus. In this film however, the selection committee had no age limit and received about a thousand potential stories. The ten selected vignettes (three of which do not deal with AIDS at all ) encompass a broad look at the subject and range for the tale of a lesbian teen trying to come out to her parents, to a gay man who shocks his lover by claiming to be pregnant, to another man's reminiscence of a brief affair with an HIV-positive man. The vignettes were originally shown individually on French television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Salvadori, Paul Vecchiali, (more)
- 1995
Two losers find an especially bad way to beat the high cost of living in this off-beat comedy from France. Antoine (Francois Cluzet) aspires to write plays, but in the meantime he scrapes together a living writing articles for a martial arts magazine and creating crossword puzzles; he spends his spare time talking with his friend Sylvie (Judith Henry) about the sad state of his love life. His buddy Fred (Guillaume Depardieu), on the other hand, doesn't do much of anything; on those rare occasions when he rises from the couch, it's to plot new schemes to pick up women, which are usually doomed to failure. However, this routine is shattered when Antoine and Fred discover that their apartment is being sold and they need to come up with some money to get a new flat. With little cash on hand and few prospects, Antoine gets an idea: rob the offices of the magazine for which he's been writing. Co-star Guillaume Depardieu is the son of French superstar Gérard Depardieu. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- François Cluzet, Guillaume Depardieu, (more)
- 1993
Victor Meynard (Jean Rochefort) is an assassin for hire, and he's proud of it. It's part of his family's business. However, in this comedy, there are occasions when he simply cannot bring himself to pull the trigger and make a "hit." Instead, he adopts the boy (Guillaume Depardieu) who would have fallen to his gun, and trains him in the niceties of the assassin's game. He is assigned to kill an art forger (Marie Trintignant) who is much too cute for such a fate. When he adopts her as well, things really start to get out of hand. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Marie Trintignant, (more)
