Summary
Jeanne is a mythomaniac, lying constantly to anyone she meets. She arrives in Paris
and gets work as a waitress, where she meets an old woman, Madeleine, who recruits her
as a housekeeper. This news does not please Antoine, a young con artist who has
arranged to take Madeleine out to dinner so that a friend of his can burgle her house.
Later, when Jeanne tells Antoine that she herself comes from an immensely wealthy family,
the young crook decides to pretend to fall in love with her. Realising that he may have
struck gold, Antoine asks two of his associates to kidnap Jeanne, to demand a ransom from
her parents. In truth, Jeanne’s parents are relatively poor...
Review
In this film, Pierre Salvadori brings together the talented pair Marie Trintignant and
Guillaume Depardieu for the third time, building on the success of Cible émouvante
(1993) and Les Apperentis (1995). The film oscillates wildly between
farce and drama, but somehow manages to avoid appearing silly or sentimental.
Bizarrely, the film could have worked perfectly well either as a comedy (Salvadori’s original
intention) or a straight drama. It is reported that Salvadori changed his mind and
introduced some dramatic elements into the film when he realised the tragic dimension
of the mythomania disorder.
The film’s schizophrenic mood is reflected in the roles of the two lead characters.
Depardieu is there mainly to entertain - which he does with consummate ease (well, he
has had plenty of experience playing this kind of luckless chump). Trintingant plays
essentially a straight role, giving a performance which is both poignant, showing the
tragedy of being a compulsive liar, as well as offering the perfect foil to Depardieu’s
boyish exploits. It is a chalk and cheese pairing which works very well indeed.
The film suffers a little from Salvadori’s inability to self-censor his work, something
which shows up in virtually all of his films. This film in particular has really
too many peripheral incidents which could and should have been cut, to avoid repetition
and slowing down the main narrative. This is less of a fault than it might seem
because, generally, the script is well-written and when the film is funny, it is hilariously
funny. Salvadori’s excesses are therefore more forgivable than in some of his other
works.
© James Travers 2000
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