Opened March 29 (France)
PARIS -- "The Valet", Francis Veber's latest offering, remains faithful to the formula -- broad farce leavened with witty dialogue -- that has made him France's most bankable comedy writer-director and a surefire hit with international audiences. The humor of "Valet" is occasionally predictable, but the movie rattles through its paces and is likely to please across a wide spectrum, not that it will rival the boxoffice success of his "The Dinner Game" (1998).
As usual, Veber's plot turns on a fall guy named Francois Pignon. This time around, Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), an unassuming car valet at a posh Paris hotel, gets caught up in a multimillionaire businessman's infidelities when a paparazzo snaps him -- an innocent passer-by -- in a photo showing the tycoon emerging from a clinch with the famous model Elena (Alice Taglioni).
The tycoon, Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil), egged on by his scheming lawyer, Maitre Foix (Richard Berry), attempts to avoid a breakup with his wife, Christine Kristin Scott Thomas) -- who also happens to own a majority share in his company -- by paying Pignon a large sum of money to pretend to be the man Elena had been kissing in the street. He will have to pretend to have persuaded her to move in with him in his down-at-heel apartment.
A tall order, given the gulf in their fortunes and social standings, but Pignon, whose proposal of marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), has just been turned down and who needs the money for his own purposes, agrees to play along.
Meanwhile, given the total implausibility of the scheme, Christine has got her own lawyer on the job, and Pignon, while attempting to explain the situation to his goggle-eyed flatmate and fellow valet, Richard (Dany Boon), finds himself under close surveillance by teams of snoops and snappers representing the rival parties.
Meanwhile, Emilie, who works in a bookshop and is being rabidly courted by cocksure cell-phone salesman Pascal (Patrick Mille), is stunned by the apparent upturn in Pignon's romantic fortunes.
And so the complications pile up in the best traditions of bedroom -- and occasionally boardroom -- farce, leading up to the inevitable happy ending with Levasseur receiving a satisfying comeuppance.
Although it touches fleetingly on issues relating to celebrity, privacy and sexual jealousy, "Valet" is designed purely as entertainment. There is no attempt to append a message or a moral, and there certainly is nothing to trouble ratings authorities.
The production hinges on a first-rate performance in the central role by Elmaleh, who succeeds on the principle of achieving more by emoting less. He leaves the comic gesticulations to Auteuil -- who played the Pignon role in Veber's 2001 movie "The Closet" -- and Boon, who, like Elmaleh, has until recently been better known as a stand-up performer in one-man shows.
Veber's firm direction of the actors is never in doubt. Berry as the unscrupulous corporate lawyer is the standout, but there is across-the-board professionalism from the cast, including relative newcomer Taglioni, whose impersonation of a top model is convincing enough to the untrained eye, and Scott Thomas, whose French contains just the barest hint of an English accent. There also is a brief appearance by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, impersonating himself.
THE VALET
Gaumont, Efve Films, TF1 Films Production, Kairos
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Francis Veber
Producer: Patrice Ledoux
Co-producers: Philippe Desmoulins, Bernard Seitz
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Dominique Andre
Costume designer: Jacqueline Bouchard
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Editor: Georges Klotz
Cast:
Francois Pignon: Gad Elmaleh
Elena: Alice Taglioni
Pierre Levasseur: Daniel Auteuil
Christine Levasseur: Kristin Scott Thomas
Maitre Foix: Richard Berry
Emilie: Virginie Ledoyen
Richard: Dany Boon
Andre: Michel Jonasz
The Doctor: Michel Aumont
Pascal: Patrick Mille
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARIS -- "The Valet", Francis Veber's latest offering, remains faithful to the formula -- broad farce leavened with witty dialogue -- that has made him France's most bankable comedy writer-director and a surefire hit with international audiences. The humor of "Valet" is occasionally predictable, but the movie rattles through its paces and is likely to please across a wide spectrum, not that it will rival the boxoffice success of his "The Dinner Game" (1998).
As usual, Veber's plot turns on a fall guy named Francois Pignon. This time around, Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), an unassuming car valet at a posh Paris hotel, gets caught up in a multimillionaire businessman's infidelities when a paparazzo snaps him -- an innocent passer-by -- in a photo showing the tycoon emerging from a clinch with the famous model Elena (Alice Taglioni).
The tycoon, Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil), egged on by his scheming lawyer, Maitre Foix (Richard Berry), attempts to avoid a breakup with his wife, Christine Kristin Scott Thomas) -- who also happens to own a majority share in his company -- by paying Pignon a large sum of money to pretend to be the man Elena had been kissing in the street. He will have to pretend to have persuaded her to move in with him in his down-at-heel apartment.
A tall order, given the gulf in their fortunes and social standings, but Pignon, whose proposal of marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), has just been turned down and who needs the money for his own purposes, agrees to play along.
Meanwhile, given the total implausibility of the scheme, Christine has got her own lawyer on the job, and Pignon, while attempting to explain the situation to his goggle-eyed flatmate and fellow valet, Richard (Dany Boon), finds himself under close surveillance by teams of snoops and snappers representing the rival parties.
Meanwhile, Emilie, who works in a bookshop and is being rabidly courted by cocksure cell-phone salesman Pascal (Patrick Mille), is stunned by the apparent upturn in Pignon's romantic fortunes.
And so the complications pile up in the best traditions of bedroom -- and occasionally boardroom -- farce, leading up to the inevitable happy ending with Levasseur receiving a satisfying comeuppance.
Although it touches fleetingly on issues relating to celebrity, privacy and sexual jealousy, "Valet" is designed purely as entertainment. There is no attempt to append a message or a moral, and there certainly is nothing to trouble ratings authorities.
The production hinges on a first-rate performance in the central role by Elmaleh, who succeeds on the principle of achieving more by emoting less. He leaves the comic gesticulations to Auteuil -- who played the Pignon role in Veber's 2001 movie "The Closet" -- and Boon, who, like Elmaleh, has until recently been better known as a stand-up performer in one-man shows.
Veber's firm direction of the actors is never in doubt. Berry as the unscrupulous corporate lawyer is the standout, but there is across-the-board professionalism from the cast, including relative newcomer Taglioni, whose impersonation of a top model is convincing enough to the untrained eye, and Scott Thomas, whose French contains just the barest hint of an English accent. There also is a brief appearance by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, impersonating himself.
THE VALET
Gaumont, Efve Films, TF1 Films Production, Kairos
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Francis Veber
Producer: Patrice Ledoux
Co-producers: Philippe Desmoulins, Bernard Seitz
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Dominique Andre
Costume designer: Jacqueline Bouchard
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Editor: Georges Klotz
Cast:
Francois Pignon: Gad Elmaleh
Elena: Alice Taglioni
Pierre Levasseur: Daniel Auteuil
Christine Levasseur: Kristin Scott Thomas
Maitre Foix: Richard Berry
Emilie: Virginie Ledoyen
Richard: Dany Boon
Andre: Michel Jonasz
The Doctor: Michel Aumont
Pascal: Patrick Mille
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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