Stars:
Daniel Auteuil,
Jose Garcia,
Sandrine Kiberlain,
Garence Clavel,
Michele Moretti
Director:
Pierre Salvadori
Summary: Paris, the city of light and love, plays host to this romantic comedy of unexpected complexity and a pervading humanity, which examines the damage that too much kindness can sometimes cause. Pierre Salvadori directs an outstanding cast, with two-time Cesar winner Daniel Auteuil (THE CLOSET, GIRL ON THE BRIDGE) as Antoine, a maitre d' at an upscale brasserie where he quietly runs the show. His altruism doesn't end at work, however, and on his way through the park to meet his girlfriend, Antoine encounters a man about to take his own life. Poised at the end of a rope and perched on a suitcase, Louis (Jose Garcia, TROUBLE EVERYDAY, JET SET) is suicidal over the loss of his girlfriend Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain). Antoine steps in and saves the man's life, and both will live to regret it, as Antoine is unexpectedly guilty for preventing this tortured man's demise. Antoine is determined to make his charge happy again, but finding him a place to live, a job, and friendship is not enough to put the life back into Louis, so Antoine seeks out the one woman who could end Louis's heartache. Things get complicated as an attraction grows between Blanche and Antoine, and Louis comes to see Antoine as his rival. APRES VOUS contains some uproarious slapstick moments, such as a distressed Louis's disastrous run-in with a waiter mid-flambe, and a dissolute Antoine, drunk on the job and punctuating his sentences with a live lobster he's holding. But it's the universal themes of love and friendship that make the film resonate, with Auteuil's hangdog likability and Garcia's wide-eyed, perpetually lost look generating a chemistry that drives both the humor and the emotion of the action. Kiberlain rounds out the cast, possessed of an ethereal beauty and playing Blanche with understated, wry sensibility.