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Movie Review Chat: Apre Vous (After You)
By Staff of LMI Published June 3, 2005
I thought Daniel Auteuil was charismatic for the nothing material he had to work with, but there was no reason to care about him or the man he saves in the park.
Lee: I have to say that when I saw the poster for this movie, my gut sank. You knew it was going to be some "cute" little French movie.
Scott: They definitely know what audience they're marketing to, at least it wasn't a mystery. This movie is almost exactly what one would expect...to a T.
Lee: I want more than just a light and cute foreign romantic comedy. And being foreign only makes it worse because you're practically reading a mediocre script, rather than just watching a mediocre movie. But it's not like this movie's main audience will really be in the U.S. ? like with Woody Allen's movies, they play mediocre in the U.S. and they tend to play quite well overseas.
Scott: Well some people want exactly that: a light and cute romantic comedy.
But then why even try to bring this French film over here?
Lee: Something like this probably has "some" audience here, but I bet the reception's even better overseas. I didn't think the movie had enough selling points to make much of an impact here.
Scott: I don't think any nation will have a great response to this thing.
Lee: The movie was reminding me of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, which didn't do well: $6,874/screen in only 2 theaters = $13,748 opening weekend.
Scott: Apre Vous has selling points, but it just doesn't deliver (kind of like every other Hollywood flick). This movie may do better than Wilbur, but it won't be any kind of hit.
Lee: I mean part of our audience was really easy to please, but I could imagine going to the Royal theater in West LA and having some of those moments play to absolute silence (let alone in a relatively empty theater).
Scott: Yes, and therein lies this movie's most glaring flaw: the absence of laughs. I just barely chuckled once. I've never even been to the Royal and this is exactly the kind of movie for such a place.
Lee: So we have this story about this waiter (Daniel Auteuil) in a busy, well-established restaurant. He runs into this weird man (Jose Garcia) in a park who's about to hang himself, saves him, takes him in, then they become friends, and then that man becomes a waiter at the restaurant, and then he wants his old girlfriend back. And the fact that this man is trying to hang himself in the park is apparently supposed to be funny. I also didn't get what was funny about Wilbur. I hate it when you're in a theater and some people are laughing, and you have no idea what is remotely amusing about the moment.
Scott: I get what they?re laughing at, but I just don't find it funny. But on this movie my hatred with the audience wasn?t as strong as usual.
Lee: I thought Daniel Auteuil was charismatic for the nothing material he had to work with, but there was really no reason to care about his character or the man he saves in the park. Then we're supposed to root for that man to get together with the estranged ex-girlfriend ? why? That's my problem with various foreign films, is that they rarely make me care.
Scott: Yeah, there was no character development or back-story.
Lee: It's like just because the films are foreign and just because the actors are fairly sophisticated in their craft means that I should be emotionally attached already. It just doesn?t work that way.
Scott: This movie coasted on the charm of its actors alone.
Lee: Charm can save a movie to a certain extent, but it didn't save this.
Scott: They were just ?there,? and I think we should get to know the characters little bit.
Lee: I thought Daniel Auteuil had charm, but Jose Garcia was about as charismatic as Orlando Bloom in whichever film you want to pick.
Scott: I thought Jose Garcia was terrible for the first half of the film ? it was one of the worst characters/performances of the year. But once he was ?healed,? he was better as a character.
Lee: He has that goofy seriousness to him, but it was just way too silly for me. Some of his moments also felt like they were right out of a kids movie too, which was kind of awkward.
Scott: Yes, and that restaurant audition scene of his was painful.
Lee: Yeah, I was watching it with my mouth open, just thinking, are you serious? You should see Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself ? there is not much of a reason to care about the fact that Wilbur wants to kill himself. The opening scene is Wilbur already trying to commit suicide in his kitchen, and it's played for laughs as if we already know Wilbur. I love scripts that don't pay any respect to story structure. You and me both know that characters trying to commit suicide are just hysterical by their own merit. But then again I also didn't "get" Harold & Maude in that sense. I didn?t find that movie remotely amusing.
Scott: Maybe we are so desensitized to film violence that attempted suicide is now light comedy.
Lee: It also depends on how it's played. Some of it was meant for slapstick.
Scott: There was absolutely no reason to care for this nearly suicidal man. We first meet him hanging from a tree, and then he's the ultimate neurotic lunatic for an hour. And we never learn anything about him other than that he broke up with his girl, and he has a talent for picking wines.
Lee: Auteuil takes him home, then that man gets up from the dinner table, walks out to the balcony, Auteuil follows him, and we think he might jump off the balcony, and he doesn't...and then the scene just carries on normally. It was supposed to be cute, and I just didn?t get it. The whole movie is a compilation of cute scenes I just didn't get. The film acted as if it had a story, and yet in any scene you could ask what was going on and really, the punch line of the entire movie could be summed up in one very straightforward sentence.
Scott: The screenplay is incredibly rote and clich?. The plot is just a lame vehicle to get to those aforementioned ?cute? scenes. There is not one shred of originality in this whole movie.
Lee: I thought the movie had production values that lifted it above certain other flicks we?ve seen recently ? like The Deal and Season of the Horse, but that really didn't help my enjoyment much. On an entertainment level, this film's a C, but the production values and a few of the performances lift it to C+. I can't really see many U.S. moviegoers wanting to see this movie in a theater. Light and cute has an audience, but even My Big Fat Greek Wedding had bigger selling points and a better story, and that movie took a while to catch on.
In the Q&A session, the Paramount executive was saying how U.S. moviegoers don?t really favor foreign films, and I don't disagree ? I can't name a single foreign film that I'd consider classic.
Scott: That's why they're called ?foreign? films and not ?movies.? It's more about intellectualism, which can be, shall we say, a little dry.
Lee: Most of the foreign films I've seen are distant, emotionally. Recently I rented this movie called Together, and it was just your average slow and boring foreign film. There's also this film called The Piano Teacher that I haven't seen but almost consider a horror film. There's nothing more I could want on a Friday night than to sit in an art house watching a film called The Piano Teacher.
Scott: You consider it a horror film?
Lee: Well, if there ever was a promise of torturous pretentiousness, it's with a title like The Piano Teacher. It seems like these foreign films take on the image that they're much more intellectual than the mainstream movies we see, and yet I watch them and a large majority fail to pull me into the story. Many of these films aren't any better than the crap we pay for at the normal multiplex.
Scott: They exist just as an ?alternative? to the mainstream dumb-downers.
Lee: Oldboy was supposed to be so cool, and we had the same reaction: blah.
Scott: Oldboy was going for the cult-film audience. Cult films and foreign films are intertwined concepts.
Lee: If this movie does business, I'll be proven wrong, but I really think quality translates into box office at the art house, and there really isn't much here.
Scott: Well the art house is supposed to be the true cinematic proving ground.
Lee: If you think about it, the good art house films tend to make some money for the amount of theaters they're in. The ones that disappear tend to disappear for a reason. And I can see this film having a relatively short run.
Lee's Grade: C+
Scott's Grade: C
Next Week's Film: Me and You and Everyone We Know
Scott: They definitely know what audience they're marketing to, at least it wasn't a mystery. This movie is almost exactly what one would expect...to a T.
Lee: I want more than just a light and cute foreign romantic comedy. And being foreign only makes it worse because you're practically reading a mediocre script, rather than just watching a mediocre movie. But it's not like this movie's main audience will really be in the U.S. ? like with Woody Allen's movies, they play mediocre in the U.S. and they tend to play quite well overseas.
Scott: Well some people want exactly that: a light and cute romantic comedy.
But then why even try to bring this French film over here?
Lee: Something like this probably has "some" audience here, but I bet the reception's even better overseas. I didn't think the movie had enough selling points to make much of an impact here.
Scott: I don't think any nation will have a great response to this thing.
Lee: The movie was reminding me of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, which didn't do well: $6,874/screen in only 2 theaters = $13,748 opening weekend.
Scott: Apre Vous has selling points, but it just doesn't deliver (kind of like every other Hollywood flick). This movie may do better than Wilbur, but it won't be any kind of hit.
Lee: I mean part of our audience was really easy to please, but I could imagine going to the Royal theater in West LA and having some of those moments play to absolute silence (let alone in a relatively empty theater).
Scott: Yes, and therein lies this movie's most glaring flaw: the absence of laughs. I just barely chuckled once. I've never even been to the Royal and this is exactly the kind of movie for such a place.
Lee: So we have this story about this waiter (Daniel Auteuil) in a busy, well-established restaurant. He runs into this weird man (Jose Garcia) in a park who's about to hang himself, saves him, takes him in, then they become friends, and then that man becomes a waiter at the restaurant, and then he wants his old girlfriend back. And the fact that this man is trying to hang himself in the park is apparently supposed to be funny. I also didn't get what was funny about Wilbur. I hate it when you're in a theater and some people are laughing, and you have no idea what is remotely amusing about the moment.
Scott: I get what they?re laughing at, but I just don't find it funny. But on this movie my hatred with the audience wasn?t as strong as usual.
Lee: I thought Daniel Auteuil was charismatic for the nothing material he had to work with, but there was really no reason to care about his character or the man he saves in the park. Then we're supposed to root for that man to get together with the estranged ex-girlfriend ? why? That's my problem with various foreign films, is that they rarely make me care.
Scott: Yeah, there was no character development or back-story.
Lee: It's like just because the films are foreign and just because the actors are fairly sophisticated in their craft means that I should be emotionally attached already. It just doesn?t work that way.
Scott: This movie coasted on the charm of its actors alone.
Lee: Charm can save a movie to a certain extent, but it didn't save this.
Scott: They were just ?there,? and I think we should get to know the characters little bit.
Lee: I thought Daniel Auteuil had charm, but Jose Garcia was about as charismatic as Orlando Bloom in whichever film you want to pick.
Scott: I thought Jose Garcia was terrible for the first half of the film ? it was one of the worst characters/performances of the year. But once he was ?healed,? he was better as a character.
Lee: He has that goofy seriousness to him, but it was just way too silly for me. Some of his moments also felt like they were right out of a kids movie too, which was kind of awkward.
Scott: Yes, and that restaurant audition scene of his was painful.
Lee: Yeah, I was watching it with my mouth open, just thinking, are you serious? You should see Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself ? there is not much of a reason to care about the fact that Wilbur wants to kill himself. The opening scene is Wilbur already trying to commit suicide in his kitchen, and it's played for laughs as if we already know Wilbur. I love scripts that don't pay any respect to story structure. You and me both know that characters trying to commit suicide are just hysterical by their own merit. But then again I also didn't "get" Harold & Maude in that sense. I didn?t find that movie remotely amusing.
Scott: Maybe we are so desensitized to film violence that attempted suicide is now light comedy.
Lee: It also depends on how it's played. Some of it was meant for slapstick.
Scott: There was absolutely no reason to care for this nearly suicidal man. We first meet him hanging from a tree, and then he's the ultimate neurotic lunatic for an hour. And we never learn anything about him other than that he broke up with his girl, and he has a talent for picking wines.
Lee: Auteuil takes him home, then that man gets up from the dinner table, walks out to the balcony, Auteuil follows him, and we think he might jump off the balcony, and he doesn't...and then the scene just carries on normally. It was supposed to be cute, and I just didn?t get it. The whole movie is a compilation of cute scenes I just didn't get. The film acted as if it had a story, and yet in any scene you could ask what was going on and really, the punch line of the entire movie could be summed up in one very straightforward sentence.
Scott: The screenplay is incredibly rote and clich?. The plot is just a lame vehicle to get to those aforementioned ?cute? scenes. There is not one shred of originality in this whole movie.
Lee: I thought the movie had production values that lifted it above certain other flicks we?ve seen recently ? like The Deal and Season of the Horse, but that really didn't help my enjoyment much. On an entertainment level, this film's a C, but the production values and a few of the performances lift it to C+. I can't really see many U.S. moviegoers wanting to see this movie in a theater. Light and cute has an audience, but even My Big Fat Greek Wedding had bigger selling points and a better story, and that movie took a while to catch on.
In the Q&A session, the Paramount executive was saying how U.S. moviegoers don?t really favor foreign films, and I don't disagree ? I can't name a single foreign film that I'd consider classic.
Scott: That's why they're called ?foreign? films and not ?movies.? It's more about intellectualism, which can be, shall we say, a little dry.
Lee: Most of the foreign films I've seen are distant, emotionally. Recently I rented this movie called Together, and it was just your average slow and boring foreign film. There's also this film called The Piano Teacher that I haven't seen but almost consider a horror film. There's nothing more I could want on a Friday night than to sit in an art house watching a film called The Piano Teacher.
Scott: You consider it a horror film?
Lee: Well, if there ever was a promise of torturous pretentiousness, it's with a title like The Piano Teacher. It seems like these foreign films take on the image that they're much more intellectual than the mainstream movies we see, and yet I watch them and a large majority fail to pull me into the story. Many of these films aren't any better than the crap we pay for at the normal multiplex.
Scott: They exist just as an ?alternative? to the mainstream dumb-downers.
Lee: Oldboy was supposed to be so cool, and we had the same reaction: blah.
Scott: Oldboy was going for the cult-film audience. Cult films and foreign films are intertwined concepts.
Lee: If this movie does business, I'll be proven wrong, but I really think quality translates into box office at the art house, and there really isn't much here.
Scott: Well the art house is supposed to be the true cinematic proving ground.
Lee: If you think about it, the good art house films tend to make some money for the amount of theaters they're in. The ones that disappear tend to disappear for a reason. And I can see this film having a relatively short run.
Next Week's Film: Me and You and Everyone We Know
