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| Taste Of Others, The |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 112 |
| Public Rating: 10.00 (1 votes) |
Director: Agnes Jaoui |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 1999 |
| Writer(s): Jean-Pierre Bacri, Anges Jaoui |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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The husband-wife team of Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri has been a force to reckon with in French cinema for about a decade now; they'd been working in theater when a play of Bacri's was made into the movie Kitchen With Apartment; this was quickly followed by their famously daunting, 5-hour marathon Smoking/No Smoking, as directed by Alain Resnais. They collaborated again with Resnais on the amusing Dennis Potter homage Same Old Song, and filmed Jaoui's play Un Air De Famille. Now, for the first time, they've done their own directing chores. And it's a good thing too. Truth be told, the only previous movie they made that I'd seen was Same Old Song; I liked the movie, but was mystified by some of the obtuse symbolism (especially a very puzzling jellyfish), and was alienated by the frequent, unexpected song excerpts that were translated into particularly banal English. This time, there's no oblique symbolism, and no songs; just a simple human comedy filmed smoothly.
Jean-Pierre Bacri is a hearty industrialist who needs to learn English for an upcoming business deal with Iranians; Clara (Anne Alvaro, last seen on these shores in a small part in Danton) is his English teacher, whom he becomes smitten with after seeing her act in a play; Manie (Agnes Jaoui) is her bartender friend, who becomes romantically enamored with Bacri's bodyguard, Moreno (Gerard Lanvin, who's pretty much unknown over here). There's also Bacri's chaffeur, Bruno (Alain Chabat, also obscure; he is, however, set to direct the upcoming Asterix and Obelix movie), whose girlfriend is spending six months as an intern in America. All of them belong to different social circles, but because Bacri has fallen in love with Clara, all these people are about to meet each other, clash, and learn something about tolerance (or not, as they choose; the movie isn't particularly dogmatic about "reforming" its characters and "curing" prejudices).
There's a couple of reasons I like this movie. 1) It's funny, full of smart dialogue, and constantly amusing. Assuredly, Jaoui and Bacri don't believe in revealing truth through unpleasantness. It's refreshing, every now and then, to see a foreign film that's actually as easy to watch as any Hollywood movie. 2) The cast is uniformly solid. No cartoonish overacting here, even in the film's token villain, Bacri's shallow, interior-design obsessed wife Angelique (Christianne Millet, previously of French TV-movies). It comes pretty close to caricature with her character, but generally, everyone is realistic and well-played. 3) It's realistic. These are real people; some of the stories have happier endings then others, but there's no sacrificing characters to suit the needs of the story.
A movie all about tolerance, The Taste Of Others is a well-paced work, shot in a straightforward manner (check out those symmetrical shots) that actually uses the 2.35:1 ratio for good reaons. I actually felt uplifted after watching it. It harkens back to that golden Jean Renoir quote: "The terrible thing about this world is that everyone has his reasons." It's a throwback to the past of French cinema, only with more dialogue about sex. In short, I like it.
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