Jean-Jacques Zilbermann's "Man is a Woman" was not exactly what you'd call a box office hit but it was a nice little story full of colorful characters and a few shots here and there of good old Jewish humor. It also had a complex central protagonist in Simon, Antoine de Caunes as a Jewish homosexual and accomplished clarinetist whose efforts to keep out of touch with the family always bumped into the 'issue' of his homosexuality. Family could excuse his lifestyle but not that it deprived the Eskenazy lineage from an heir.
The film's centerpiece was the romance with a singer named Rosalie (Elza Zylberstein) and the cultural clash ensuing from the encounter with her Orthodox family, revealing the latent hypocrisy of the religious world etc etc. The film concluded on a rather lackluster note with a baby born from the marriage and an anticlimactic separation. It was just as if at the very last minute, Zilberman's inspiration dried out and nothing original or satisfying or funny (even in a cynical way) could close Simon's arc. And so I expected a lot from the sequel that came 11 years after. Maybe the director needed more perspective to come up with new ideas or maybe that was the time it'd take for Simon to triumph over his demons.
Speaking of Simon, he's aged gracefully; Antoine De Caunes is 56 but can pass as a man in his late forties. He's still smoking, still serene about things and his inclination toward younger men seems to indicate some Oedipan gaps the film doesn't really explore. Maybe he likes to be a mentor-figure or maybe he's amused by the immaturity of the youth... I guess I'm interested enough to question this. The film opens with a flirting scene with a young married man named Raphael (Micha Lescot), the boy doesn't reappear until an hour and to add to the confusion, the second scene shows Simon waking up with a young North African boy named Naim.
In fact this is the central relationship; Naim (Mehdi Dehbi) is not only a transvestite but a Muslim as well, not only does Dehbi steal the show through his performance but his character was a revelation. Now I can verbalize what was wrong with the film "Chouchou", the character played by Gad El Maleh was funny and heart-warming but he lacked depth. Gad was busy impersonating a woman, Dehbi finds the right note as a man struggling to be the woman he wants to be. Dehbi is so good Simon feels totally accessory.
There's a scene near the end where Naim questions his femininity and wonders whether he could pass a woman during a party or was he so vulgar he didn't fool anyone. Then, Simon and he look at their reflection on the mirror and looking at Naim's beauty as a woman, I was confused myself. That the film could achieve that and make me feel for a character who could be a walking cliché was impressive. And speaking of "Chouchou", I was wondering why Gad El Maleh didn't reprise his role as the handsome cousin David.
Maybe he was reluctant to kiss a man or maybe he was busy making "Coco" a film about a rich Jewish guy celebrating a bar mitzvah and one that kept me kvetching all the time. Gad, as talented as he was, made a specialty of stretching one-note sketch characters into film protagonists, for disastrous results. "The Strange Romance of Simon Eskenazy" doesn't go for the laughs but tries at least to go for the emotions and it works... to a certain point.
For all its good intentions, the film suffers from a tedious and unfocused script that makes you constantly wonder "where is this going?". The original, despite dealing with an interesting subject: homosexuality and its difficult recognition among the skeptical and hardened families, kind of lost its way in the romance but it did so for the sake of funny and meaningful interactions. The second opts for the meaningfulness but without that little edge, that extra push of Jewish humor, it falls into sappy sentimentalism more than once. There's no conflict whatsoever with Rosalie, no problem with the American born son Yankele.
The film tries to explores Simon's complicated relationship with his mother Bella (Judith Magre) who must be taken care after an accident. While not the prototypical Jewish mother, she's still unbearable for her son who'd rather go sleep at his frtiend's house, played by Catherine Hiegel who was Rosalie's mother in the first film. There are some good and heart-warming moments, I wasn't too surprised by the way Naim became the catalysis of Simon's reconciliation with the mother, but there was something too convenient in the way they made her die after she and her son came to terms. Does everything have to be so neat?
Overall, I liked the way the film brought again all the element of the Yiddish culture and the music always plays a good role. De Caunes is serene and nonchalant and I guess it's the right tone, he really played a character worthy of a trilogy but it's like Zilberman thought of a totally original film and then decided to insert it in Simon's universe as an afterthough. And maybe I'm in a minority but I had a feeling that the film tried too much to be one of these hymn for fraternal love between Jews and Arabs to better contradict the reality of the world. It's true there are common roots between the communities but with the Sefaradic community.
Also I found the profainity a tad overused by Naim, I'm an Arab speaker and some words he chose to insult Simon were beneath him, one wouldn't say them to someone he loves... but Simon doesn't care anyway, and he's always with these sad eyes and amused little smile as if he was embodying in his face the bittersweet clarinet leitmotif. I can accept that.
The film's centerpiece was the romance with a singer named Rosalie (Elza Zylberstein) and the cultural clash ensuing from the encounter with her Orthodox family, revealing the latent hypocrisy of the religious world etc etc. The film concluded on a rather lackluster note with a baby born from the marriage and an anticlimactic separation. It was just as if at the very last minute, Zilberman's inspiration dried out and nothing original or satisfying or funny (even in a cynical way) could close Simon's arc. And so I expected a lot from the sequel that came 11 years after. Maybe the director needed more perspective to come up with new ideas or maybe that was the time it'd take for Simon to triumph over his demons.
Speaking of Simon, he's aged gracefully; Antoine De Caunes is 56 but can pass as a man in his late forties. He's still smoking, still serene about things and his inclination toward younger men seems to indicate some Oedipan gaps the film doesn't really explore. Maybe he likes to be a mentor-figure or maybe he's amused by the immaturity of the youth... I guess I'm interested enough to question this. The film opens with a flirting scene with a young married man named Raphael (Micha Lescot), the boy doesn't reappear until an hour and to add to the confusion, the second scene shows Simon waking up with a young North African boy named Naim.
In fact this is the central relationship; Naim (Mehdi Dehbi) is not only a transvestite but a Muslim as well, not only does Dehbi steal the show through his performance but his character was a revelation. Now I can verbalize what was wrong with the film "Chouchou", the character played by Gad El Maleh was funny and heart-warming but he lacked depth. Gad was busy impersonating a woman, Dehbi finds the right note as a man struggling to be the woman he wants to be. Dehbi is so good Simon feels totally accessory.
There's a scene near the end where Naim questions his femininity and wonders whether he could pass a woman during a party or was he so vulgar he didn't fool anyone. Then, Simon and he look at their reflection on the mirror and looking at Naim's beauty as a woman, I was confused myself. That the film could achieve that and make me feel for a character who could be a walking cliché was impressive. And speaking of "Chouchou", I was wondering why Gad El Maleh didn't reprise his role as the handsome cousin David.
Maybe he was reluctant to kiss a man or maybe he was busy making "Coco" a film about a rich Jewish guy celebrating a bar mitzvah and one that kept me kvetching all the time. Gad, as talented as he was, made a specialty of stretching one-note sketch characters into film protagonists, for disastrous results. "The Strange Romance of Simon Eskenazy" doesn't go for the laughs but tries at least to go for the emotions and it works... to a certain point.
For all its good intentions, the film suffers from a tedious and unfocused script that makes you constantly wonder "where is this going?". The original, despite dealing with an interesting subject: homosexuality and its difficult recognition among the skeptical and hardened families, kind of lost its way in the romance but it did so for the sake of funny and meaningful interactions. The second opts for the meaningfulness but without that little edge, that extra push of Jewish humor, it falls into sappy sentimentalism more than once. There's no conflict whatsoever with Rosalie, no problem with the American born son Yankele.
The film tries to explores Simon's complicated relationship with his mother Bella (Judith Magre) who must be taken care after an accident. While not the prototypical Jewish mother, she's still unbearable for her son who'd rather go sleep at his frtiend's house, played by Catherine Hiegel who was Rosalie's mother in the first film. There are some good and heart-warming moments, I wasn't too surprised by the way Naim became the catalysis of Simon's reconciliation with the mother, but there was something too convenient in the way they made her die after she and her son came to terms. Does everything have to be so neat?
Overall, I liked the way the film brought again all the element of the Yiddish culture and the music always plays a good role. De Caunes is serene and nonchalant and I guess it's the right tone, he really played a character worthy of a trilogy but it's like Zilberman thought of a totally original film and then decided to insert it in Simon's universe as an afterthough. And maybe I'm in a minority but I had a feeling that the film tried too much to be one of these hymn for fraternal love between Jews and Arabs to better contradict the reality of the world. It's true there are common roots between the communities but with the Sefaradic community.
Also I found the profainity a tad overused by Naim, I'm an Arab speaker and some words he chose to insult Simon were beneath him, one wouldn't say them to someone he loves... but Simon doesn't care anyway, and he's always with these sad eyes and amused little smile as if he was embodying in his face the bittersweet clarinet leitmotif. I can accept that.