TIFF ’08: The Girl from Monaco

La fille de Monaco
**/****
starring Fabrice Luchini, Roschdy Zem, Louise Bourgoin, Stéphane Audran
screenplay by Anne Fontaine, Benoît Graffin
directed by Anne Fontaine

by Bill Chambers Her ringtone is a wolf whistle, her bedroom is decorated with Princess Di memorabilia, and she says things like, “I feel orange.” She’s The Girl from Monaco. She’s also a coarse variation on Sarah Jessica Parker’s SanDeE* from L.A. Story (this time, it’s she who does the weather), duking it out for the soul of lawyer Bertrand against his emotionally-involved bodyguard, Christophe. Bertrand (Fabrice Luchini) is in Monaco representing a suspected murderess (Stéphane Audran) in a case high-profile enough that the accused’s wealthy son assigns Bertrand round-the-clock protection in the form of gentle giant Christophe (Roschdy Zem). But the biggest threat to lonely bachelor Bertrand, a doormat when it comes to the opposite sex, is Bertrand himself. Consequently, Christophe becomes his girl wrangler, going so far as to send one would-be stalker into a cum coma (™ Eli Roth’s Hostel: Part II) on Bertrand’s behalf. Thing is, Audrey (Bourgoin) has already been there/done that with Christophe; a succubus built like a porn star, Audrey is the kind of problem you can only solve with a serpentine stretch of highway, Grace Kelly-style. (If you think I’m being tasteless, you should see the movie.) I feel like I’m missing out on some in-joke based on the fact that Bourgoin was a real-life weather girl for the Canal+ channel, but her performance seems bravely uninhibited for one that’s implicitly self-referential. She sure does make an impression in any event for the McGuffin of a formulaic buddy comedy. Between this Anne Fontaine joint and Patrice Leconte’s My Best Friend (another agreeable time-waster), it would appear that French filmmakers have just discovered said sub-genre, but they’re not doing as much to subvert it or innovate it as their CAHIERS DU CINEMA peers/precursors would have done. PROGRAMME: Gala Presentations