L'amour ... fou (cough) (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (DVD))

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (DVD)
Date:	14/03/06 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A la folie ...

Disadvantages: ... pas du tout

Angelique buys a single rose for the new man in her life. Normally the shop won't deliver one bloom, but she has such a wide, warm smile, and eyes so deep and dark you'd drown, that they do - it goes to Loic, who's a cardiologist, and she goes to art school.

Over the opening scenes of the film we see her and him going about their relationship business. At a university function she follows him up some stairs for time away from everyone. He knocks on her door at dead of night, when unfortunately she's out. She delivers a huge portrait at dead of another night to his offices as a birthday present.

She also gets stood up on said birthday night. She and her best friend and colleague also see him greet his pregnant wife in the street. She's bitter about all this as you would expect, but firmly and happily in love with him. But is he as in love with her?

He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not is one of those films where saying too much in an op can give the game away. It is almost one of those films where that statement itself also can give the game away, but not quite. For while it doesn't have a leap-from-the-seat revelation, it has a large change, shall we say, that enables you to sit back and review what we've seen. As a result, the plot description ends here.

To categorise the film is a bit awkward. Let's just leave it as a drama, pure and simple - a film that starts as a love story, and becomes an engaging dramatic entertainment - with love still its subject.

Audrey Tautou, in the female lead and on all the images for the film, has a great character here. The world Angelique lives in seems very French, although when she's cycling around town there's never a hint of a traffic jam, which isn't exactly realistic. She has a best friend come hanger-on, who tries to put her on the straight and narrow and make her realise an infatuation with a married man isn't exactly going to work. She has a best girlfriend, who works with her in a bar, but she "plays the field", as the subtitles have Angelique say, and so isn't a clue to how to lead a regular relationship.

It hardly bears telling that Audrey Tautou was cast because ever since Amelie she personifies a certain French, feminine winsomeness - fresh, if caked in make-up, naturally happy and smiley, though with a desire to kill some stupid-looking house plants. It's a great part for her, as she starts on familiar territory then ends being shown in a new light - a good transition piece between Amelie and The Da Vinci Code then. She's supposed to be very likeable, almost perhaps naively so, and she is.

Samuel le Bihan as the married man is great too. He doesn't get a lot of screen time in the first half of the film, but soon comes into his own. He does his job very well too, and there wasn't a duff moment. Nor is there really with any of the other characters.

This all goes to show that the film is very nearly a complete success, even though it's by someone in their 20s making their first feature. Laetitia Colombani has had acting and film-making training, but had only done two shorts before this (one of which can be seen on this film's DVD release). The credits suggest someone else helped with some of the dialogue, but all the rest is her own work, and it's great stuff.

The real selling point of the film is the way the whole story gels - again, something hard to describe without letting the bird out of the cage. Some have put it on a par with Sliding Doors - the same great merging of well-thought-out and structured drama that's perfectly easy to follow, and only perhaps a smidgen too easy to second-guess. You won't be ahead of this film, but theediscerning was guessing the revelations just at their arrival.

The film rented as a certificate 12; it won't offend. It's mature in that it's so well crafted, but breezy in approach and still quite family friendly. If you want a brief but great flirt with French cinema, you would do well to form a relationship with this film.

It's clear to see from He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not that Colombani is a name to watch, as long as she can provide engaging material for big name stars to boost it's international appeal. Tautou certainly succeeded here, and if a big name is what it takes to make the director a big name, then all well and good. He Loves Me etc is well worth a viewing, and certainly one to catch.

Summary: Entertaining film with good strong storyline and cast.