Beautiful Lies

I've struggled a little to find out too much about this week's screening.  It's a French film, and to celebrate this we're serving cheese and wine, so hopefully no one will really notice.

Here are my - abbrevaited - notes:

Beautiful Lies / De vrais mensonges

France 2010                 105 minutes

Director:                      Pierre Salvadori

Starring:                        Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye and Sami Bouajila

 
When Emile (Audrey Tautou) receives an anonymous love letter from Jean (Sami Bouajila), she thinks it comes from an elderly admirer and so sends it on to her mother Maddy (Nathalie Baye).  Eventually Maddy learns that Jean is her secret admirer, and Emile has to play up to this to keep her mother happy.  But finally Emile has to tell them both the truth.

Pierre Salvadori made his name in France as a writer and director of romantic comedies, and had previously worked with Audrey Tautou in his 2006 film Priceless (Hors de prix), which he claimed had been inspired by Blake Edwards’ film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).  In his review of Beautiful Lies in The Guardian Xan Brooks noted the plot’s echoes of Jane Austen’s Emma.

After initially working as a model Audrey Tautou became an actress, and after receiving critical acclaim for her first roles she gained international recognition for her lead role in Amelie (2001).  She has subsequently worked internationally in films as diverse as the British thriller Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and the Hollywood blockbuster The Da Vinci Code (2006) as well as appearing in major French films that included A Very Long Engagement (2004) and playing Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel (2009).

Here's the trailer: