Some countries are renowned for a certain type of film, it is part of their film culture. The UK, for example, is often associated with gritty realism and costume dramas. France has a couple too, one would be the avante garde art film, the other, the French farce. The recent batch of self-deprecating Japanese humour seems to have much in common with it. We come then, to The Valet. The plot is as follows:
Pierre Levasseur, an important CEO, is photographed with his lover, Elena, a world-famous model. In an attempt to salvage his marriage, he tries to convince his wife that Elena is not his lover, but that of François Pignon, a porter who was passing by and ended up on the photograph. To make his story believable, Levasseur then has to convince Pignon and Elena to move in together and to pretend to be a couple. Things get more complicated when this creates tensions between Pignon and his former flatmate Richard and his love interest Émilie, and when Levasseur’s wife discovers the truth and decides to play games with her husband. (source)
The trailer shows plenty of interesting stuff, particularly the juggling of relationships as both men try to convince other women they are not interested in Elena. Likewise there’s the hint that Elena may actually end up in love with the simple valet, Gad (played by François Pignon). Relationships seem to offer a vast ocean of potentially embarrassing and humourous situations (both on screen and off), and the French have always been good at exploiting it, so if you want a bit of romance and a lot of comedy then it might be worth a look.
The UK release date for the movie is 29th April (20th April in the US), not sure why they didn’t go for Valentines Day, which it would have been perfect for I’m sure.
You can see the trailer on Apple here.
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