Yet another French actress has turned, via screen writing, to directing and turned out a minor gem first crack out of the box. Inasmuch as it's set on a farm and involves an older man and a young woman it is reminiscent of The Girl From Paris - and that's not a criticism; Mathilde Seigner and Michel Serrault were both excellent - and shows that it is possible to put a spin on this type of story. Michel Blanc farms what seems a touch too many acres for someone working with only a wife and a simple hired hand. Within minutes his wife expires off screen via the electric milking machine leaving Blanc with no one to cook, sew, scrub, do the milking etc so he takes the Dating Agency route and winds up in Bucharest interviewing lots of gorgeous young girls who have all mastered the same mantra 'you're so handsome'. Only one girl, the lovely Medeea Marinescu (who actually hails from Bucharest) has the wit to effect an interest in farming and winds up his best of a bad bunch mate of choice. We've been here before, of course, notably in Rachel And The Stranger, when it took stranger Robert Mitchum to make William Holden see Loretta Young as something else besides a mail-order bride, but this is none the worse for that. This is all about relationships and how difficult they are to both establish and maintain and how people CAN change the habits of a lifetime - a sequence where Blanc, who doesn't like parting with a buck, lays a few thousand euros on Elena and tells her she's cracked the lottery would normally want some swallowing but here we're more than happy to accept it. Two exceptional leads, a low-key story with just the right amount of sentiment; highly recommended.
Review of You Are So Beautiful
