Pas sur la bouche (2003)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

André Barde (libretto: original)

Release Date:

3 December 2003 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Plot:

A musical drawing room farce set in Paris in October, 1925. Gilberte, in middle-age, flirts with men but loves her husband Georges...

Plot Keywords:

Singing | Beautiful Woman | Seduction | Ex Husband | Dancing

Awards:

5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Sabine Azéma	...	Gilberte Valandray
Isabelle Nanty	...	Arlette Poumaillac (soeur de Gilberte)
Audrey Tautou	...	Huguette Verberie
Pierre Arditi	...	Georges Valandray (second mari de Gilberte)
Darry Cowl	...	Madame Foin
Jalil Lespert	...	Charley
Daniel Prévost	...	Faradel
Lambert Wilson	...	Eric Thomson (premier mari de Gilberte)
Bérangère Allaux	...	Une jeune fille
Françoise Gillard	...	Une jeune fille
Toinette Laquière	...	Une jeune fille
Gwenaëlle Simon	...	Une jeune fille
Nina Weissenberg	...	Juliette

Also Known As:

Not on the Lips (International: English title) (USA)

Runtime:

USA:115 min | Argentina:115 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

France | Switzerland

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | France:U | Hong Kong:I | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Arena Films

Soundtrack:

Pas sur la bouche

Curious museum-piece for an ex-trendsetter

Like several other reviewers I was taken to the film 'cold' without knowing anything about it, and after several minutes was expecting the somewhat lacklustre tunes and stock-farce characters to tip over into something edgy and contemporary. Mais non. However is this such a bad thing? Given the French predilection for unflinching realism and tragic endings, Pas Sur La Bouche can be enjoyed as a salute to the traditions of the Comedy Francaise, an expression of nationalist (anti-Brussels?) sentiment, and as a crafted product as lovingly detailed as a reproduction Deco sideboard. One is almost expected to read afterwards that Resnais had an ironic or iconoclastic subtext in mind, but the film seems to be charmingly irony-free throughout. There are no patronising modernist jabs at the shallowness of pre-war bourgeois entertainment, and in fact the period is recreated with a warm and sentimental glow. It can be argued in fact that the play has been not so much adapted for the screen as embalmed, for there are definite longueurs, the singing voices are almost uniformly mediocre, and the lack of varied or outdoor settings does detract. All in all, a charming, civilised and unexpected entertainment from one of the self-styled intellectuals of French cinema, and a brilliant recreation of an ensemble of now-forgotten French 'types'. To get an idea of precisely how far comedy has 'advanced' in 70 years, compare with Legally Blonde or My Best Friend's Wedding and you'll see my point.