|
|
 |
| |
Emmanuel Mouret (David) and Frederique Bel (Anne) in Change of Address |
Camden cinema | Change of Address movie review | French cinema | comedy
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
Directed by Emmanuel Mouret
Certificate 18
THE French horn is an instrument of beauty that in the wrong hands sounds like a raspberry.
This film about a horn player suggests that French rom-coms are much the same.
They have a reputation for quirky comedy. They are considered by the rest of the world to be romance personified.
This tale about professional horn player David and the two girls in his life has competent actors and the beginnings of an interesting plot. Yet it’s a belter of a raspberry.
David (Emmanuel Mouret) is placing an advert on a wall, looking for a room, when he is approached by the lovely Anne (Frederique Bel). She says she has just the thing – a spot in the corner of her modest, very, very open-plan studio flat (bath on raised platform of sitting room, etc).
Instantly it is suggested by their winks and nudges that a bit of free French love is on the cards – David certainly thinks so.
But instead we discover our heroine is infatuated with someone she has never spoken to, while David’s own beau is Julia (Fanny Valette), a 19-year-old girl who he is teaching the horn to.
She is attractive, but incredibly shallow, speaking around five lines for the entire film. The only thing he can possibly see in her is driven by lust. It is not very gratifying and does not mean you particularly like any of them.
They prowl about each other, insisting they are in love with others.
The saving graces are moments of lovely, incidental music – one scene particularly, which is all too brief, features a flute, harp, glockenspiel and French horn: the concentration on the faces of the players has super comic value.
But overall the characters seem listless – and it is never quite explained why. Is it because they all have some deep, personal angst, which would perhaps make them interesting? Or is it simply that the three main characters, like this film, have nothing really to say?
After sitting through something approaching two hours of their world, I am inclined to think it is the latter. |
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
