Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

JoeytheBrit Apres Vous is a subtle, gentle comedy that tries to raise smiles rather than belly laughs, and so may not be to everybody's tastes. The ever-reliable Daniel Auteuil plays Antoine, a nice-guy waiter who saves Louis (Jose Garcia) from suicide and, his role in life being to help (or serve) others, feels compelled to straighten out Louis' life to prevent him from taking it again. Unfortunately, these plans don't go quite to plan, and Antoine finds his own life falling apart.It takes a while to get into this typically Gallic comedy, and there is never anything particularly memorable taking place on screen, but it does reward the patient viewer with an ultimately sweet view of human nature and displays a positive attitude to life, irrespective of the setbacks encountered by us all, which results in all the main characters left in a better position at the end of the movie than at the start. While the character of Antoine is perhaps a little too saintly to be truly believable – many would have decked Louis at the point when he accuses his saviour of being selfish – Auteuil makes him an immensely likable person, which is just as well as it's up to him to carry most of the film. Garcia is suitably stricken as the hapless Louis, traumatised by the break-up of his relationship with Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain) and frightened of things falling on top of him. The idea of having these two main characters slowly exchanging their situations (and, to a lesser degree, mental quirks) has you suspecting that things are heading towards a much darker conclusion than they actually do, but the writers manage to manufacture a more uplifting – if less likely – conclusion.

tnrcooper This is a sly, thoughtful and honest, rewarding romantic comedy done French style. It is the story of a lovelorn Parisian named Louis (Jose Garcia) whose hurt over his rejection by his love Blanche (the graceful, elegant Sandrine Kiberlain) has prompted him to attempt to take his own life. Fate intervenes, however, and a good Samaritan in the form of nice guy maitre d' Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) prevents the success of the suicide attempt. Antoine feels pain for Louis and takes him in, offering him a place to stay, attempting to boost his spirits, find him a job, and re-integrate him into society in an effort to re-habilitate him. The search for a job is short and mad-cap. The restaurant where Autueil is maitre d' is a high-end restaurant called Chez Jean and they are looking for a sommelier. Louis is set up to succeed in the interview and hilarity ensues. However, obviously, the greatest harm done to Louis was the hurt done to his heart by the break-up. It turns out, via one of the daffiest, wildest scenes you're likely to see, that Blanche did not dislike Louis and that outside factors undid the bond between the two ('nuff said). Wackiness, and heartache, ensues, once Antoine ventures to try to put his new friend back together with the lovely Blanche. He finds himself fighting his own desire to pursue her. This large-scale effort to help Louis put his life back in order obviously puts a strain on Antoine's relationship with his girlfriend, the reasonable, but not unreasonably long-suffering Christine (the capable Marilyn Canto). Obviously the crux of the film is Antoine's loyalty to his girlfriend, his ability to restrain his affection for Blanche, and thereby, his fealty to his friend Louis. The resolution of the film is fair; it is complicated but while perhaps it is not the optimum result for all parties, how often does this happen in life? The film seems to me largely plausible which is always satisfying; I can suspend my disbelief for a brief period of time, but if a film really wishes to simulate reality, it should not test this suspension of disbelief too much. Perhaps the only, or certainly by far the most, unrealistic part of the film was Louis sudden success as a sommelier after a very undistinguished start. Given such ineptitude from the outset, it seems unlikely he would have been kept on, and certainly would not have become as well trusted as he eventually became. That said, the vast majority of the characters and the plot development seems quite reasonable. The performances, Louis' neuroticism, Antoine's desire to be an everyman, and Blanche's well-disguised insecurities, are revealed well. This is a grown-up, satisfying, bittersweet, romantic comedy that.....gasp, even men (and certainly this one did) might like.

aliasanythingyouwant Apres Vous is the story of two men, one a hectic headwaiter living in a state of romantic suspension with his girlfriend, the other a depressed individual of indeterminate occupation having a hard time living after dumping his own significant other. Their acquaintanceship begins in a way befitting two characters in a French romantic-comedy: Antoine, the headwaiter, finds himself crossing a deserted park at night, the same park Louis the head-case has chosen as the site for his last moments on earth; discovering Louis dangling from a tree, Antoine aids the unfortunate man, rescuing him from his self-inflicted coup de grace, while managing simultaneously to placate his own girlfriend, Christine, who is waiting with dinner for him at their apartment (ah the wonders of the cell-phone). Inordinately sympathetic toward the depressed Louis' plight, Antoine brings the poor man home. This sets off a chain of events that will draw Antoine ever deeper into Louis' miserable existence, bringing him face-to-face with the woman responsible for breaking Louis' heart, an ethereal florist named Blanche, who has romantic problems of her own, and becomes yet another beneficiary of the increasingly discombobulated Antoine's misguided altruism.European films are often preoccupied with the strange, co-incidental ways in which people's fates become intertwined, but instead of mining this theme for a sense of existential wonder, like Kieslowski, director Pierre Salvadori goes a more conventional direction, turning in a breezy, somewhat darkly-shaded comedy in the tradition of Woody Allen, where there are enough ideas floating around to keep the viewer's mind engaged, but the tone never becomes really intellectual, and the neuroses rarely become extreme enough to engender the kind of dramatic gravity that might bring down the farce, the romantic escapades, the light-comic esprit. The characters may have serious mental issues, especially Louis who is a candidate for a psycho-ward, but Salvadori never takes them that seriously; he fixes the semi-frivolous tone early in the film, when Antoine comes across Louis hanging from the tree branch, and has to converse with Christine on the phone at the same time he's trying to rescue the strangling man. This scene could be straight out of Woody Allen, and frankly so could a lot of the rest of the movie, like the scene where Antoine takes Louis to his aged grandparents' place to intercept the letter he's sent them, telling them of his imminent suicide; or the sequence where Antoine helps Louis get work as a sommelier at the restaurant, and Louis is completely hapless, clinging to the flustered Antoine's coat-tails while worrying the light fixtures are doing to drop on his head. The trick is all in the handling, in keeping the farce from becoming so broad that it shatters the reality of the characters, but putting it across strongly enough that we're amused by what's happening in a way that isn't too abstract (the scenes are funny, not just the ideas, like in a lot of French "comedy"). Salvadori and his cast prove themselves adept at this brand of comedy, which is silly but not too silly, smart but not too smart, dark but not too dark. Daniel Auteuil, the French De Niro, uses his tender eyes to great effect in playing Antoine, who is much more anxiety-ridden than he's letting on, while Jose Garcia employs a natural, understated sad-sack quality in playing Louis as a whimpering, panic-stricken mess. The object of Antoine and Louis' mutual affection, Blanche, is portrayed by Sandrine Kiberlain (think Gwyneth Paltrow without the haughtiness) as a free-spirit with a weakness for hooking up with the wrong man, whose porcelain skin and tragic eyes prove an irresistible, if off-beat, combination.Like a lesser Woody Allen film, Apres Vous works well enough without ever reaching critical mass. The plot is perhaps too neatly symmetrical, too schematic to allow real comic or emotional fireworks to go off; or perhaps it's just that Pierre Salvadori is the kind of director who's content to generate only a mild energy, who, like Allen, is happy breezing toward a logical resolution, and doesn't feel the need to press matters very much. Either way, Apres Vous is successful on the terms it sets, which are modest.

Red-125 Après vous (2003), directed by Pierre Salvadori, has the same basic plot as Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932). In both films, someone saves the life of a person. This person then causes endless problems for the rescuer.Daniel Auteuil (Antoine) is the senior waiter in an elegant restaurant in Paris. He's skilled and respected at work, and has a wonderful girlfriend named Christine (Marilyne Canto). Antoine has the misfortune of saving Louis (José Garcia) from death by suicide.Louis is a loser in life and in romance. He has attempted suicide because of his rejection by the love of his life, Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain).All this takes place within the first ten minutes of the movie. The remainder of the film follows these four characters as they go down an amusing--but fairly predictable--road.Certain things don't come together. For example, Blanche is considered the epitome of female virtues, but, other than her long, slender neck, I didn't see much that was attractive about her appearance or her personality.The best scene in the film is that between Antoine and Louis' Grandmother. The late Andrée Tainsy was 92 (!) years old when she played this role.This movie is not obnoxious, but it's far from a masterpiece. My suggestion--rent Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu Sauvé des Eaux) and watch how a master director handles a similar plot.