La Fille de Monaco (2008) - film review

Bertrand, a brilliant and media-friendly lawyer, is called to Monaco to defend a seventy-year old man charged with murder.  The latter’s son lends him his bodyguard, Christophe, to keep him out of harm’s way.  During a television interview, Bertrand meets Audrey, a beautiful weather presenter with whom he falls instantly in love.  What Bertrand does not know is that Audrey happens to be Christophe’s former lover and that his client has a strange reluctance to employ a defence lawyer...

There is a piquant tongue-in-cheek irony to Anne Fontaine’s latest tragicomic exploration of desire and sexuality, as once again we see the stale calm of respectable bourgeois life wrecked by a tsunami of dark and mysterious passions.  But it is irony tinged with complacency, and this risks making the film a parody of some of Fontaine’s earlier, more earnest efforts.  With its savoury mélange of romance, eroticism and dark humour, La Fille de Monaco has some obvious similarities with Fontaine’s previous Nathalie... (2003), although here the protagonists who swap salacious accounts of their bedroom exploits are male and the storyline, whilst not particularly well structured or convincing, has a little more substance.  The plot also has a high degree of overlap with Claude Chabrol’s recent La Fille coupée en deux (2007), although this is entirely fortuitous; thematically and stylistically, the two films could hardly be more different.  

With performers of the calibre of Fabrice Luchini and Roschdy Zem, the film is pretty well insulated against failure, although the abundance of clichés, plot contrivances and some painfully superficial characterisation pose a challenge even for these talented thesps.  Louise Bourgoin makes an impressive film début but fails to make her character anything more than the stereotypical empty-headed bimbo that she is on the printed page.   Some parts of the film are strong – the Luchini-Zem exchanges are to be savoured as they are both witty and incisive – but equally there are parts which drag interminably and could benefit from the scissors treatment.   

Whilst it may not be as satisfying and substantial as Anne Fontaine’s previous films, La Fille de Monaco is not without charm.  What deficiencies it has appear to lie almost entirely in the scripting department.  The direction and acting are generally beyond reproach and Fontaine once again assures us that she is one of France’s most capable and engaging filmmakers.   Doubtless the film will appeal most to devotees of this director, who appears to be on a one-woman crusade to probe the mysteries of sex with her characteristic wry humour and the unflagging determination of a bloodhound on steroids.  However, the main reason for watching the film is that it provides Fabrice Luchini with his best role in a decade, and he certainly does it justice (excuse the pun).

© James Travers 2010

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At last Madame Fontaine is back on my shopping list after my disappointment with her earlier film Nathalie.  I almost doubted if this one would be any good.  Well La Fille de Monaco is not good, it's great.  My goodness!  What first impressed me was the cinematography, the backdrop of the location, a great performance by Fabrice Luchini and (oh my oh my!!!) the femme fatale Audrey (Louise Bourrgoin).  For me this film did not disappoint one bit.  Yes, it started as a comedy and became a bit serious towards the second half.  One of my favourite actors, Luchini (with his surprised look and placid glare) is absolutely wonderful.  It took the lawyer a long time to realise the kind of girl the weather reader is really like...  What I also admire about this film is that the director never wanted the audience to unnecessarily witness the tragic consequences towards the ends, but hey this is a great movie.   Let me not forget the bodyguard and driver - a great actor indeed.   By the way, I must say I do not understand French very well but I could follow exactly and understand, my Hugo French In Three Months is paying dividends!  A solid three stars.  Merci Madame Fontaine, please make more movies  of this kind, and keep it real, just like you did with this one - authentic moviemaking at its best.
Thanda Makhathini (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) 

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