La doublure
Tags: comedy, humor, clever

Plot synopsis:
Pierre Levasseur is a wealthy married Parisian executive involved in an affair with top model Elena Simonsen. When a paparazzo catches the two of them departing their secret hideaway and their photograph is published on the front page of the local newspaper, Pierre's wife Christine confronts him. He claims he has no idea who the woman is, and that she must have been a companion of the man seen walking beside them. Fully aware of Pierre's difficult situation, Elena gives him an ultimatum: he must choose between her and his wife. Because Christine is the majority shareholder of his business, Pierre is in danger of losing his fortune if he divorces her. His lawyer Maître Foix advises him the only way to resolve the issue is to find the anonymous man in the photo and have him pose as Elena's lover.
The anonymous man is the hapless François Pignon, a parking valet who is in love with bookstore owner Émilie. Deep in debt and worried about her business, she has turned down his marriage proposal because she believes she has too much on her plate, and thinks of him as a brother. Meanwhile, Maître Foix locates François and offers him money to let Elena move in with him and pretend they are a couple. François agrees and asks for 32,450 euros: the exact amount of money that will pay off Émilie's debts. Meanwhile, Elena demands 20 million euros to participate in the sham relationship, a sum she keeps as a deposit that she will return to Pierre when he leaves his wife. Dislodging his friend and roommate Richard, Elena moves in with François, who is overwhelmed by the situation, but the two quickly become friends.
Christine is not fooled and plays the situation for all it is worth, making her husband jealous of François and Elena's living situation. Émilie, too, is confused and upset to see François and Elena together. Eventually, Elena explains the situation to Émilie, who is grateful for the funding François requested for her, and she acquires a newfound respect for him and eventually accepts François' proposal.
In the meantime, Christine secretly tape records Pierre saying he has no intention of leaving her for Elena and offering to take his wife on a second honeymoon. When she sends the tape to Elena, Elena decides to leave Pierre. She notifies Pierre of her leaving by sending François to meet him in her car at a secret rendezvous point. François conveys the news to Pierre who angrily responds that he has voided the 20 million euro transfer. François then tells Pierre that Elena anticipated this of him and indicates that she never wanted the money implying that Elena leaves the relationship with a clean split. François then walks away from the limo as a cross-dressing prostitute approaches Pierre and the two are photographed by a paparazzo.

Review: The model in the film is refreshingly genuinely nice and not a caricature of a "supermodel." The depth of the main unwitting character, the valet himself, is a bit lacking - but hey, he is charming, as is the rest of the cast.
My smiles were only interrupted now and then by bursts of laughter.Gad Elmaleh plays a valet who through pure chance is photographed with a billionaire (the always wonderful Daniel Auteuil) and his mistress, a famous supermodel.
Fans of The Dinner Game, The Closet, and Veber's other classic comedies can expect more of the same--a fall guy named Pignon, a hilarious case of mistaken identity, some touching moments of friendship, and a lot of shameless farce a la Moliere.
Some may say it's "just" entertainment--but like his great predecessors in the tradition of French farce and popular theater, Veber packs a lot of punch.
It's the director's best film to date and features great performances by Auteuil, Scott Thomas, and the rest of the star-studded cast..
Dany Boon (Joyeux Noël) got a César nomination for supporting actor as the best friend of a really lucky guy.Daniel Auteuil (Caché, Girl on the Bridge) is hilarious as the billionaire caught with his supermodel mistress, France's Actress of the year for 2006, Alice Taglioni (The Pink Panther).
François (Gad Elmaleh) just happened to be in the published picture, so they paid him to fake a relationship with Taglioni to fool Auteuil's wife, Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient, Gosford Park).
She's no dummy, knows he's lying, and that's when the fun really begins.Of course, our man François is really in love with Émilie (Virginie Ledoyen - 8 Women, Saint Ange).It is all good fun and credit for that is not only due to a fine cast, but to writer/director Francis Veber (La Cage aux folles), who put together some great lines and a funny situation.Please do not let them make a stupid American remake.
Nothing new under the sun:wives,lovers,girlfriends,mistaken identities...But why deny yourself a good thing,an entertaining unpretentious funny little comedy?You should be wrong.An excellent cast,male and female,gives this trite story substance.Daniel Auteuil,as the villain,a smug mean bourgeois who thinks that money can buy everything,Kristin Scott-Thomas ,as his cheated wife who threatens to ask for a divorce (and it is her who owns the dough),Alice Taglioni as the gorgeous but sensitive top model (definitely not a bimbo),Gad Elmaleh as the clumsy shy prole,Virginie Ledoyen ,one of the most promising French actresses,as a sentimental bookseller and Richard Berry as Auteuil's lawyer.A few nods to "rear window" .And a very funny (and moral) ending..
Just like the hot supermodel he gets temporarily paired with.Director/writer Francis Veber is known for this sort of comedy.
A note about Francis Veber: his standard recipe is to create an "everyman" character (who is always named François Pignon in every movie) and place him in an absurd situation that is the result of the strangeness/hypocrisy of people around him.
There is nothing sloppy about this, or any other film of Francis Veber.The result is 90 minutes of pinpoint comedic timing, great performances from every actor (including the minor roles), and a fun experience as if you've seen a well produced stage performance.If you like classy comedies with picture-perfect accuracy, movies like Frank Oz's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Death at a Funeral" or Blake Edwards' "Breakfast at Tiffany's", I think you'll really like this.
This guy, the classic Francois Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), is a very limited and naive valet who doesn't understand why he gets paid to live with a model.
This time Veber's every-guy character François Pignon (here Gad Elmaleh) gets pulled into a scheme by megabucks CEO Levasseur (Auteuil) to extricate himself from charges that he's been cheating on his wife Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) with his mistress of two years, "top-model" Elena (Alice Taglioni), which obviously he indeed has.
It's a nice moment when he asks Levasseur "May I speak to you as a friend?" and Levasseur quickly replies, "No." Auteuil, with his polished lack of affect, is perfect for his role.This isn't as ingenious as The Closet or The Dinner Game (and other earlier Veber comedies) and maybe that's why we can see the wheels turning so clearly.
This movie, by the maker of The Dinner Game, La Cage Aux Folles, and some other fantastic comedies is a well-executed film, if one can swallow some, at least for me, unreasonable premises.
The story is that a very wealthy business mogul (Daniel Auteuil, perhaps a bit too manic as Pierre Lavasseur) has been caught by his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas very capably playing a very capable co-CEO named Christine) allegedly, or what is (rightly) believed to be, a clutch, with a famous supermodel named Elena (the charming Alice Taglioni).
Veteran and very talented director Francis Veber has been a fantastic director with a great appreciation of the nuances of human relations and the director of other excellent comedies like "The Dinner Game" (1998), "La Cage Aux Folles" (1980), "The Closet" (2001) is very talented.
At a time when French cinema is at, IMHO, its lowest ebb, with not a single great auteur in sight, I had come to rely on Francis Veber to provide excellence in comedy if of only a not very profound type.
The central character drifts through a series of 'adventures' involving an unpleasant millionaire (Daniel Auteuil) who is cheating on his wife (the fabulous Kristin Scott Thomas) with a model.
Francis Veber has probably seen better days as a filmmaker- he directed the Dinner Game, much appreciated by those who've seen it, and he wrote the original La Cage Aux Foux script- but it's never a bummer to see him pour out his contrived romantic comedies.
The one who gets the most real investment of full dimension is the wealthy adulterous husband, played by Daniel Auteil, who previously played Francois Pignon in another Veber movie, only this time played by the average shmo-like Gad Elmaleh.It would be a little pointless going through the big hoops in describing the plot as it is stemming from a fairly obvious, if clever-obvious, premise (the Village Voice review is basically a whole description of the review, in much more amusing respect than I could muster).
But it should be noted that all of the little twists that occur without there being a whole lot to connect with the characters aside from schadenfreude with the rich guy (and his wife instigating it, played by Kristin Scott Thomas in surprising 100% French), because the ones who are the everyday folk are kept a little too simply: girl needs money for her father, but doesn't want to get involved with the man who loves her so.
It's about as light as comedy can get, with the roughest touches of absurdity being the doctor father being treated by his own patients, a woman who's head is caught on fire while her waiter is taken by the sight of the supermodel and valet, and the very last scene, which has a comeuppance that is cheesy, but very funny, and a surprise considering the lack of transvestites in the film.
It's truly believable as Francois Pignon, a valet at an upscale restaurant near the Eiffel Tower, is caught in a picture on Parisian streets with Daniel Auteil's character and the character's mistress, Elena.
The French are masters at that type of comedy.The actors do their best with their paper-thin, but likable characters, some scenes work wonderfully, others feel too forced, but the good-natured proceedings ensure pleasurable viewing.A certain snappiness would've given the material's fluffiness the necessary edge.Still watchable, though the final joke's too silly.6 out of 10 unlikely playboys.
He's probably my favourite French actor, and also here he doesn't disappoint.Overall, I enjoyed watching this film, although I'm not sure I would want a second viewing.
The valet is a nice guy who is down and out, but doing the best he can with what he was given; the CEO is a bad guy: in an American movie, you could guess the outcome, but this is a French movie, so you're on your own!On a side note, Francis Veber also wrote and directed Le dîner de cons, which we found very disappointing after enjoying La Doublure..
Veber, after all, is a veritable master of the screwball and romantic comedy, having birthed such modern gems as the original BIRD CAGE, THE TOY, THE DINNER GAME, and THE CLOSET (amongst many others that were sometimes even able to make the transition to American adaptation).Surprisingly, THE VALET is no such masterwork.
Who knows.The real trouble with THE VALET is that it lacks ALL of Veber's classic conventions -- his smarts, his ability to construct realistic characters dealing with absurd situations, and his canny ability to use wordplay in a manner rare to current screwball/romantic comedies (in France, America, or anywhere else).
Though written by Francis Veber, who gave us the 'La Cage Aux Folles' series and 'La Placard', seems to understand the genre as well as anyone, the script for this much-used story is bland and lacks the sparkle and inventiveness of Veber's successes.The tale is one of marital infidelity: a wealthy man Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) is married to elegant and intelligent Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) and having an affair with top model Elena (Alice Taglioni) for two years.
Enter a simpleton valet François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh) who is hopelessly in love with bookstore owner Émilie (Virginie Ledoyen), the daughter of his father's strange physician who is more concentrated on salvaging her business than on paying attention to François's romantic overtures.
I am not quite sure if it was because the story did not ring true, Auteuil overacted or the film had more an American feel to it than a French one.
I still enjoyed the movie and laughed often, but I just did not think it so hilarious than Veber's other comedies..
Most of the characters are a bit boring and certainly offer little for the audience to care about, I will say the premise is promising, though unfulfilled.Gad Elmaheh as Francois is in love with book store proprietor Virginie Ledoyen, but she thinks of him as only a friend.
Billionaire Daniel Auteuil is married to a very clever Kristin Scott Thomas, but is in serious lust for supermodel Elena, played by a very beautiful and charismatic Alice Taglioni.
Dany Boon is the oafish friend of Francois who is dumbfounded by his friend's luck at the turn of events which lead to Francois shacking up with Elena.The stage is set for a classic French comedy, but instead the film falls flat as pretty much nothing really happens and the viewer is left to ponder why writer/director Francis Veber didn't expend a bit more effort on the script in order to elicit a few more laughs.
And while "The Valet" may not be exactly golden (it's barely gold-plated, if you want to know the absolute truth), it's still a moderately diverting trifle - provided you don't ask more of it than it can reasonably deliver, that is.The protagonist is Francois Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), a struggling, average-looking chap, who works as a parking valet at a high-end restaurant located right across the street from the Eiffel Tower.
Francois' simple life is turned upside down when, through a fluke of fate, he is hired to play the lover of a French supermodel (Alice Taglioni) whose long-running affair with a married billionaire CEO (Daniel Auteuil) has recently come to light in the Paris tabloids.
This leads to a great deal of complications for all involved, including Francois' pretty young love interest (Virginie Ledoyen) who, unfortunately, has not been let in on the ruse.For all its undeniable Gallic charms, "The Valet," written and directed by Francis Veber, is probably funnier in concept than it is in execution.
Is a simple and nice comedy about Pignon, a man who is offered to live with a top model ( an offer that nobody can't refuse) just for save the marriage of a millionaire who is the lover of the top model.Maybe the plot is not great and is not very real, i mean i don't think that a supermodel is like the one of the film, but the film carry out with the principal and unique point: entertain.I mean i really laugh a lot, especially in the beginning when Pignon is still living with his friend and the relation between Pignon's father and his doctor is nothing but hilarious.So i really recommend this film if you want to see just a nice comedy.Well after watch one film of this festival and other of La Muestra International De Cine ( the two festivals right now in Mexico City), i have more desires of watch another of this festival..
Taglioni is, let's face it, a world-class beauty if you like that sort of thing but Pignon happens to be dating Virginie Ledoyen who leaves Taglioni dead in the water but it makes for some nice complications.
Also on hand are Michel Aumont - who also has a nice line in sight gags - and Danny Boon and given that Veber is now lacing his comedy with heart - a la The Apartment - the result is the perfect Saturday night movie..
It wasn't a bad one actually but it highlights the film's main problem: many promising things on the paper but a failure at the execution, starting with the plot.Yes, a rich man caught with his mistress by a paparazzi and forced to pretend that the lover was actually the 'other guy' on the cover, was a juicy premise, a typical Veberian screwball comedy full of malicious intertwining maneuvers and the fetish character François Pignon, previously played by Pierre Richard, Jacques Villeret and Daniel Auteuil.
Kristin Scott Thomas plays (once again) her rich icy woman, with such a frigid authority it almost excuses Levasseur's affair.And Veber's camera is so enamored with the beautiful, tall and young mistress Elena that it never elevates her above her sole, defining status: the trophy girl, Levasseur's first and then Pignon.
In other words, he was boring.It's like making Pignon a decent fellow was a priority over spicing up the plot a little, Elena is nothing but a trophy girl.
But labels are still prevalent and the 'hero' must triumph while the bad guy must get his comeuppance.Levasseur starts as a troubled man trying to save his marriage and fortune, he spends the whole second act teased by his wife and worrying about the seemingly sensual interactions between Elena and Pignon, in a tense state that works like a punishment already, but for some reason, he's turned into a pathetic last-minute villain at the end of the film.
Well, I guess it was somewhat present in the comic relief role, Dany Boon who played his buddy, he would have made a better Pignon in my opinion.The whole film is just a succession of scenes victims of a bad editing, like build-ups for gags that never happen, and when they do, they fall flat, except for a clever nod to "The Dinner Game", Veber's masterpiece.
"The Valet" still met with moderate success, benefiting from Veber's reputation and the aura of all the leading stars, but the film never holds up to its premise.And don't get me started on the ending, Veber used to end his movies with an icing on the cake, here, the cake was literally thrown to our faces, or was it to point out that this whole mess was only a "travesty" of comedy?.
Known in English as "The Valet," this sparkling comedy written and directed by Francis Veber tells the story of Pierre, a wealthy businessman (Daniel Auteuil) who seeks to conceal his affair with supermodel Elena (Alice Taglioni) from his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is the majority owner of his entire business, by convincing her that Elena is actually in love with Francis Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), a parking attendant.
Auteuil and Thomas are established stars but Gad Elmaleh and Alice Taglioni are also excellent.
Plus, knowing that the same person who wrote and directed two of my favorite recent French comedies (THE DINNER GAME and THE CLOSET) made this film, it was a definite must-see.Now that I just finished watching it, I must say that I was once again very, very impressed.
Francis Veber has once again done a great job--creating a lovely comedy that, unlike the other two films, has very strong romantic elements.
In fact, I would say that this is a great date film--with plenty of laughs for the guys and lots of sweet scenes for the ladies.Gad Elmaleh (sort of a French version of Ray Romano in looks) plays François, a very decent valet who is desperately in love with Émilie.
As he's walking down the street, he happens to walk by a rich industrialist (Daniel Auteuil) having an argument with his super-model mistress (Elena, played by Alice Taglioni).
While it's very, very hard to imagine a beautiful and rich lady dating an ordinary guy, people start to believe it--even Auteuil!.The film is very, very smartly written.
But, I was also very impressed by two others--Gad Elmaleh (who I'd never seen before in a film but played one of the most decent people you could meet) and Dany Boon--who did a great job in a small supporting role.
Plus, while I loved the two other Veber films I mentioned in the first paragraph, I actually think I liked this one best--great job!!.
Basically the storyline is as hackneyed as could be: wealthy exec (Daniel Auteuil) gets caught in the company of a supermodel (Alice Taglioni) who is not his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas).
And Taglioni gets more and more angry at Auteuil for dicking her around, promising to divorce his wife but clearly not wanting to.This plot could come out of a screwball comedy from the 30s, Three's Company, any number of French or Italian sex farces of the 60s-70s, etc.
Auteuil spends much of his time mugging or getting over-the-top angry and becomes more and more of a scumbag as the film goes on - want to guess whether he and Taglioni end up together at the end?