Un baiser s’il vous plaît: A Romcom with Brains

While on this French kick, I will review a French film. Un baiser s’il vous plaît was released in France in 2007 but is technically a new film here in the States as it was just released on DVD. I’m not sure what the French title means, but here it was released as Shall We Kiss? The trailer and DVD cover don’t do it justice, making it seem more like an average romcom than the thoughtful film it actually is.

Intellectual, ironic, and charming…

This film is a fatalist work that explores the consequences of human behavior and how people react to it. The theme is that people will do what they want, and it is one’s choice to react emotionally or to wait for time to take its toll or work its magic. The film begins with two people, Gabriel and Émile, who fall in love at first sight. However, the story of Judith and Nicola, les amis d’Émile, who are involved with other people but fall in love (despite, or because of, their deep friendship). Judith kind of just goes along with what Nicola wants, until she realizes that she has hurt her husband Claudio. Their story ends with Nicola quite happy they are together (he really seemed to want it more, while Judith’s emotions were more conflicted) and Judith telling him it will take time for her to be happy (again, highlighting the fatalist theme of the movie).

Gabriel and Émile give in and share a very passionate kiss, but it turns out Émile is Claudio’s new wife, and she decides that Gabriel should go. The fatalism of their ending is that they shared this wonderful night together, talking and one kiss, but rather than let Claudio suffer again, they chose to suffer for a missed opportunity. This ties directly into Judith’s feelings, because she attempted to lessen the blow to Claudio by contriving a date with Nicola’s ex-girlfriend, Câline, that ultimately exposed her deception, which hurt him more.

Fatalism, this film posits, is to suffer but not complain, because (to paraphrase Câline) whining doesn’t take the suffering away, only time.

The cast was superb, and their acting was subtle but pronounced enough to impress the viewer. With the exception of Nicola (and his unibrow), they were all beautiful in a way only the French can be. The music, by Shubert (this ties into the plot), was pretty too. The cinematography, art design, and costume design of this film was all minimalist, relying on a chic use of shades of white. The direction of the film highlighted the cerebral aspects of the plot, by placing characters in front of art pieces, and creating shots that looked like oil paintings themselves. The script tackled intellectual conversations with deftness and humor that The Single Man tried for, but lacked.

The grace of the characters, the grace of the plot, and the grace of the filming was light enough that it made the implications of the film all the more surprising. Roger Ebert criticized the prettiness of the cast, the conversations, and the camerawork, but I think it had to be light enough for such thought provoking fatalist subject matters. This film was, if anything, very, very, very French (quite!).

I think a remake by Hollywood would be expertly handled by Natalie Portman as Judith, Michael Vartan as Gabriel, Cate Blanchett as Émile, Amanda Seyfried as Câline, and Jason Schwartzman as Nicola. If you see this movie, you will see what I mean. Come to think of it, this seemed like a Wes Anderson or Sophia Coppola film that didn’t take itself seriously.

If you’re in for a good foreign film, watch this movie!