Une pure affaire (2011)
Directed by Alexandre Coffre

Film Review

Alexandre Coffre's directorial debut feature provides a welcome break from the swarm of inane, hyperactive comedies that have plagued French cinema in recent years.  A grown-up black comedy that is far more British in its humourous slant than French, Une pure affaire combines a twisted portrait of family life with a cogent morality tale concerning society's complacency over illegal drugs dealing.  The plot is hardly original and appears to have been lifted from the American television series Weeds, which also features an everyman character from the suburbs dabbling in narcotics distribution.  In fact, the film is based on the novel Powder by the British writer Matthew Kneale (son of the screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who famously created the Quatermass serials).  Coffre's film takes a well-worn scenario and gives it a wryly ironic Gallic spin, dishing out some caustic comments on contemporary society with its generous dollops of dark humour.  It's a lot funnier than it sounds, providing you are not easily offended by narcotics-themed comedy.

It is not too hard to envisage a British remake of the film, with Hugh Grant in the central role of the sympathetic loser who learns that dealing in drugs is not the wisest of careers moves for a middle-aged lawyer teetering on the edge of a mid-life crisis.  François Damiens is a more than adequate substitute for Grant in the French film, a popular Belgian actor with a penchant for improvisational comedy.  Having distinguished himself in a raft of popular French language comedies that include Pascal Chaumeil's L'Arnacoeur (2010) and David Foenkinos's La Délicatesse (2011), Damiens is fast becoming hot property in the French comedy scene, and Une pure affaire is the perfect vehicle for him to show his worth both as an actor and as a comic performer.  As Damiens's slightly neurotic wife, Pascale Arbillot comes into her own with an equally arresting performance and looks set to become another leading light of Francophone cinema.   One other face to watch out for is Gilles Cohen, superb here as a sadistic comedy villain of the blackest hue, one with an indefinable reptilian charm and an allure that is cooly demonic.

With flair and imagination, Alexandre Coffre avoids most (alas not all) of the pitfalls that claim many a first-time director and delivers a mainstream entertainment that manages to get across its moral subtext without ever appearing glibly moralistic.  The crass naivety of a middleclass couple who allow themselves to be lured into drugs dealing not only provides a sound basis for an enjoyable comedy but it also serves to remind us of the ease with which commerce in our supposedly over-regulated society frequently negates moral principles for economic gain.  From the trade in firearms to dodgy dealings in the financial sector, morality is too easily sacrificed for short-term profit, often with the result that someone somewhere ends up getting hurt.  The title of Alexandre Coffre's quirky first film is succinctly ironic, for no business can afford to be entirely chaste, although some are more chaste than others.

Film Synopsis

David Pelame is a 40-something lawyer and family man who is stuck in the proverbial middle-aged rut.  His career has become as dull and predictable as his home life.  Instead of being the highflying legal eagle he once dreamed of becoming, he is now no more than a pen-pushing functionary, filling his days with mundane tasks just so that he can go on collecting a modest paycheck.  Then, one Christmas, Fate gives him a chance to break out of his monotonous routine.  Whilst out walking the dog, he happens across a bag filled with cocaine and a telephone buzzing with calls from eager clients.  At first, David's wife Christine is far from pleased to discover that her husband has taken up drugs dealing to supplement his meagre income, but, having lost her own job, it is not long before she too is seduced by the prospect of easy money (all tax free).  When reality catches up with them both it does so with a vengeance...