July 18th, 2008 — Movies, Paris
Apres Vous is a romantic comedy that takes place in Paris. The DVD is subtitled in English, at least here in America.
In a way, it is similar to Ratatoille, only not animated. A lot of the action centers around an up-scale restaurant in Paris. Things get complicated when Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) (he was nominated for a Cesar for best actor), the headwaiter, takes a shortcut, scaling the gate, through the park late one night. (I was trying to figure out what park, and if I’d ever been there.) He is late to meet his girlfriend, and he is about to be even later. In a humorous scene, filled with pathos, he saves Louis (Jose Garcia) from hanging himself.
This random act of kindness snowballs into more, when he takes Louis home; doesn’t tell his girlfriend the whole of it; and eventually gets Louis a job in his own restaurant in a funny scene in which Louis is clearly out of his element during the job interview.
The same night he rescues Louis, Louis remembers he sent his grandparents a suicide note. Antoine and Louis take an all night road trip to intercept the letter. But the letter has already been delivered. The grandmother is a hoot, and Antoine reads her his version of the letter. (It would have been fun to know the whole of what the other letter said. I could catch a lot, but I suspect it is even funnier than I knew.) The grandmother is to blame for a lot of it. I bet the actress had fun with this role!
Louis is despondent, because his love for Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain) was not reciprocated. Louis is just strange enough — and funny enough, since you know this is a comedy — that it makes you wonder how anyone would take him home without being afraid. And make no mistake, he is strange. But against all odds, he manages to conquer the restaurant, strange or not.
Later Antoine finds Blanche, saves her from a disastrous fast-approaching marriage, and falls for her in a big way. He tries to leave the field open for Louis, but there are pitfalls in the way. And the better Louis seems to be, the more Antoine has followed in Louis’ footsteps by being unable to function.
It has a believable and satisfying ending. There are many, many funny scenes, where people just miss each other — or run into each other — scenes in the restaurant; the restaurant owner; scenes in the kitchen of the restaurant; etc.
By the time we had watched half the movie I was picking up a lot of French phrases again. In some cases I know it was subtitled perfectly. In other places I know the subtitles were not complete or were translated easier than it would have been if you knew the language. Scenes in the restaurant, with people talking in the background are not subtitled, but you’d catch the words if you were French-speaking. Same goes for the songs played during the soundtrack, the words are not translated.
Have you seen it? I give it a 3.
Karin
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