writers_reign
The last time Valerie Lemercier wrote and/or directed a mediocre movie or gave a mediocre performance was never. She is, in short, one of the joys of current French cinema wearing any of her three hats. She is, of course, in brilliant company; think Nicole Garcia, Agnes Jaoui, Danielle Thompson, Toni Marshall, Ann Fontaine, Marion Vernoux and at least a dozen more. Had Lemercier waited for one year she could have celebrated her fiftieth birthday with this, her fourth film as a triple-threat (technically her first outing was a remake of the Sacha Guitry Boulevard Comedy Quadrille but she did adapt the screenplay just a tad). If we insist on faulting her it is true to say that - so far at least - she lacks a gift for fashioning the 'Original' screenplay; she followed Quadrille with La Derriere in which she dragged up as a male, as had Jesse Mathew, Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand before her; she followed that with her finest writer-director-actress credit to date, Palais Royal, a brilliant satire on Diana, Princess of Wales, and now her latest writer-director credit finds her satirising the modern phenomena the 'celebrity' who feels his/her/their lives are incomplete until they have adopted a child or six from the Third World, which is, of course, The Ultimate Accessory, the subtitle Lemercier has chosen for 100% Cachemir. She and husband Gilles Lellouche are ultra trendy Parisians with no children of their own but literally any and everything else that money can buy. In the rarefied air in which they live their empty lives the next step is crystal clear: adopt a Russian child. If the result is predictable the alliterative team of Lemercier and Lellouche elevate the humdrum to the next level. Predictably the tame misogynist at FilmsdeFrance has trashed it and if ever there was a selling point that surely is it.
petarmatic
I saw reviews of this film, and went to see it without much of a hope that I will see anything fantastic. But I was kind of pleasantly surprised.I mean it is a female film with a light plot and nice cinematography. I enjoyed costumes and beautiful Parisian apartment interiors. I mean it is rare to see how the interior of a bigger Paris apartment looks like. Not many people get to see it.When I went first time to Paris when I was teenager I stayed in one of those apartments. It was beautiful! It reminded me of those times.Plot and acting are nothing really to talk about. Nothing in the plot that kept my attention, acting was fair.If you never went to Paris, this is a perfect chance for you to see how rich Paris people live.Otherwise, you can freely skip this film, nothing that special in it.
