Man! I swear the dude behind me in the theater — the one who kept kicking the back of my chair/head — was Charlie Manson. Ha … well, he looked just like him, except for no telltale swastika etched into his forehead. I digress … and I haven’t even gotten started.
What do you do if you are at Sundance, and your Internet provider is down — so you can’t read e-mails? Ha … you step into a movie. And as luck would have it, the film showing this morning at The Egyptian on Main Street was a French film with subtitles.
LOL … or actually under my breath. I could tell that I wasn’t the only one in the audience who was going through Internet withdrawals. The woman beside me had her Blackberry in hand, illuminating her corner of the theater … but get this. The first dozen or so times the subtitles appeared on the screen, me and all of the other tech geek brethren in the place reached for our keyboards as if to respond to the text — as a mindless reflex action. Crazy.
After a few minutes, with not one “OMG” on the screen, we acclimated to the English type, French audio.
Today’s film in question? “Cliente — A French Gigolo.” Talk about luck of the draw. I walked up to the theater and said “Do you have an extra seat for a writer?” They handed me a ticket, and I walked in to find out le cinema du jour.
Qui est le cinéaste de ce film?
Josiane Balasko.
C’est ma cinéaste préférée.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiane_Balasko
The film does a great job of intertwining love, humor, lust, betrayal, stress, farce, stereotypes … and oh yes, that “call me … anytime … day or night” thing. Actually, the gigolo plot has deeper content and relationships flowing all around it, it’s just that love-for-hire is the catalyst that lights the bonfire in a broken relationship. A young man endangers his marriage, to make money to fund his wife’s business, and becomes entangled with an older woman. But that crazy cell phone gets him all outed.
The comic relief derives from the older woman being the “star” of a French shopping network, and her sister, the producer. There’s great sibling rivalry between the two old “maids” — especially when the producer starts “playing teepee” with a French-speaking “Sitting Bull” type from Arizona who’s touring Europe in some Wild West show.
There are some good laughs and some poignant scenes about lonely people holding out for a chance at love. Good stuff. Also — amid the French rap (DJ Kore) soundtrack is a great romantic Motown tune — to color in a love scene.
Director Balasko plays the sister who lands the big chief, or “Jim,” played by George Aguilar.
Eric Caravaca is the French bread winner. Nathalie Baye plays the client, and Isabelle Carre is the young wife/hair stylist.
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/cliente
Like I sayin … I got used to the text thing, and the film is well done — Cliente gets cinq le pings
