Priceless (DVD)

The French, as it is well-known, do the art of Lurve rather better than just about everyone else. That goes for classic romance, skewed alternative conceptions of love and just about everything in between. Priceless (2007), starring Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh, is nearer the non-conventional end of the spectrum. The director, Pierre Salvadori, claims the film is loosely based upon Breakfast at Tiffany's, although the resemblance is sketchy. Rather, this is in its own right a picture of a series of characters who have very different understandings of what love, romance and relationships are about. Irene (Tautou) is a mercenary lover who blows ...  Read the complete review

I had wanted to see the French film Priceless at the cinema but missed it as these art house films sadly never linger for long. And so it went onto the high priority list of Lovefilm, tout de suite! "What is this?", asks hubby as I put the film on. "Does it have subtitles?" he sighs. Once I tell him it has Audrey Tautou in it, though, that shuts him up quick! Priceless is a film set in the French Riviera, and tres jolie it is too. There is no Parisian langour or disaffection, it is immediately engaging and positively buzzing with energy. The luxurious universe of Riviera hotels is introduced, and we meet the hotel employee Jean (Gad ...  Read the complete review

I loved Audrey Tatou in Amelie and had heard that this film was worth a watch for not only the story but some of the style & fashion, this is a very cute french romantic comedy. Audrey Tatou's character, Irene, is a ruthless gold digger, bored by her older benfactor. She meets Jean (played by Gad Elmaleh) a waiter / bartender in an elite Cote d'Azur resort hotel. The sting in the tale is that she thinks he is a wealthy guest and doesn't realise that he has no money till it is too late and she has bled him dry of what little money he had, when she finally realises his true identity she quickly disappears. But he doesn't and he ends up becoming a gold ...  Read the complete review

I'll be honest and say that up until now, I have never watched a foreign film in my life. I didn't like the idea of having to read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen as well as watching the on-screen action, so therefore I didn't bother. This film caught my attention in a preview on another DVD I had watched, so I decided to take a chance and rent it from the library. If I didn't like it, I hadn't lost anything but as it turned out, the film really did live up to its name! Jean is being run ragged at his job as a bartender at a very posh hotel in Southern France. But his luck is about to change when he bumps into stunning guest Iréne. She's usually on ...  Read the complete review

As a connoisseur of foreign films (okay wannabe connoisseur) I have found the French production line a good source of quality films, from Tell No One to The Page Turner or Hidden to Amelie these films rely on great dialogue and clever and twisting plotlines to deliver exceptionally compelling films. Okay, I guess we're only going to get the very best of the French films imported into this country (an equivalent of Alien V. Predator in the form of Giant Snail V. Giant Frog seems a little unlikely to make its way over the English Channel) but this just made it all the more likely that a quaint looking little French film I stumbled across for just £3 in HMV would ...  Read the complete review