MASCARADE is a 2022 French comedy-drama film written and directed by Nicolas Bedos. The film premiered and was screened out of competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
There are two references to Somerset Maugham at the start of the deliciously wicked film MASCARADE (French spelling for Masquerade).The film opens with his quote: “The French Riviera is a sunny place for shady people.”The French Riviera or Le Cote D’Azur is the setting of the film’s story.The second reference is one of the film’s gay characters (Maugham is himself a gay writer) buying one of the villas owned by Maugham and is unable to keep up with the property expenses.
The film is about a young gigolo, Adrien (Pierre Niney) falling under the spell of a tantalizing con artist, Margot (Marine Vacth).They devise a devious scheme in pursuit of a life of luxury as hatched under the French Riviera’s burning sun.
The whole cast of characters in Bedo’s film do come across as ‘shady’.
First and foremost is Margot (Marine Vacth), the gorgeous con artist who is incapable of loving.She secretly hides the existence of a daughter and is unable to return the love Adrien has for her.But the script calls for her to have a change of heart as she feels tenderness for one of her victims, Jean-Charles.
Secondl is Adrien (Pierre Niney) the one who falls for Margot.He is also the gigolo for famous actress Martha (Isabelle Adjani), hiding his affair and love of Margot from his benefactor
Martha (Isabelle Adjani) the pompous and egoistic actress rising to fame at all costs
Carole (Emmanuelle Devos) faces desperation when her husband finds new love and allows herself a brief fling with Adrien
Thomas (James Wilby) the ex-husband of Martha who has an open secret that the whole town knows of, except for Martha.He is openly gay and cheats on Martha.
The stories unfold as different witnesses take the stand in a court case. The case involves Margot’s attempted murder by Jean-Charles.A flashback reveals whether he is guilty or innocent.
The film works in the first third till the romance between Adrien and Margot takes full swing.The case of unrequited and passionate love at all costs have all been seen and done in countless films before.But actor Vacth is beautiful to watch as is Niney, even though he wears an ugly untrimmed beard half the time.He still maintains the good looks he displayed in his other films YVES SAINT LAURENT and FRANTZ, both films of which earned him Cesar nominations for best performance.
If only Bedos' film manages\d to hold the interest of the first third, it would have succeeded as a Chabrol-like wicked thriller.Instead, the film falls into pastiche melodrama filled with characters no one really cares for.
MASCARADE is available to rent from Digital TIFF Lightbox from July the 4th.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN (LES ENFANTS DE LES AUTRES) (France 2022) **
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski
Virginie Efira stars as a teacher whose new relationship with a single father becomes complicated when she begins to connect with his young daughter, Lelia, in this romantic drama. For Rachel (Virginia Efira), each moment with her new boyfriend, Ali (Roschdy Zem), is pure bliss. They share everything, including his precious four-year-old daughter Leïla (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves). The situation is precarious: the more time Rachel spends with Leïla, the more she cannot help but feel like a mother to the child.But Leïla already has a mother, Alice (Chiara Mastroianni) . Rachel also has a younger sister who is pregnant. Rachel wants a child of her own but her biological clock is running out.
It is all about other people's children. The film plays like a Truffaut movie with the camerawork and focus in and out shots. The kindness to Rachel’s student is reminiscent of the kindness shown to students in L’ARGENT DE POCHE. The trouble with this movie is everything falls into place for a happy ending all too easily ending all the drama created into meaningless fluff.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN is director Zlotowski’s most personal film to date and is inspired by past relationships.She aimed to make a sensitive, nuanced portrait of "that secondary character in the story who is usually the stepmother", with a view to deconstructing the stereotypes of this figure.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN which premiered at theVenice Film Festival i competition followed by a Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year will be released in select theatres in Toronto (Carlton Cinema), Ottawa (ByTowne Cinema), Vancouver (VanCity) and Edmonton (Metro Cinema) this Friday June 16th.
In the 1930s, a young struggling actress becomes famous after being accused of the murder of a producer that the audience is led to believe she did not commit.Or maybe she did actually commit the murder.The truth comes out at the film’s half mark.
Everyone loves a good play about murder.THE CRIME IS MINE or MON CRIME is adapted from the Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1923 French theatre play.The play survives the test of time and director Ozone (my personal favourites SITCOM, LES AMANTS CRIMINELS) ensures one is constantly watching a film based on one as the film is stagey, but in a good way.
As in any play with murder as its subject, there is a host of suspicious characters.MON CRIME is not the typical whodunit, but it contains vert intriguing characters.
Pauline (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) an up and coming lawyer who is unable to pay rent but ends up defending her roommate, Madeline
Madeline (Rebecca Marder) first seen escaping from the residence of a producer who promises her a role in bis latest production.There is a 5 minute introduction of the film as Madeleine leaves hurriedly and with distress.
Andre (Édouard Sulpice), Pauline’s lover who is the wealthy lazy sleaze ball who has never done a decent for of work in his life.His rich father’s allowance is spent on gambling and he wishes to marry another in order to enjoy his current living.But Pauline loves this lovable lout.Maybe there is some good in him and he can change
Odette Chaumett (Isabelle Huppert), a silent film star wishing to have a comeback at all costs. Huppert plays her with all the charm and nastiness, making an appearance at the film’s halfway mark and lifting the film just as it begins to lag.
Ozon has managed to amass quite the French talent available.This includes Fabrice Luchini as an somewhat inept judge who constantly mistreats his over enthusiastic clerk, Dany Boon as a Master plumber who helps the girls solve more than their plumbing problems and Andre Dussollier as the head of a tire factory (Bonnard’s tires go faster. longer!) facing financial troubles,
Ozon tackles the #MeTooMovement with sexual abuse with scarlet and famous producer here as in the Harvey Weinstein case.Ozone also champions the power of women, especially when they stick together.
In the midst of Madeleine being accused of murder, friends Madeleine and Pauline go to the cinema to watch Billy Wilder’s BAD SEED. A delicious reference is made in the cinema of a newsreel telling of another famous previous murder during the same 30’s era, of VIOLETTE NOZIERE, the murder later made into a film that starred Isabelle Huppert when she was much younger.
Ozon gets to deliver his elaborate act of female injustice when the prosecutor and defending attorney summarize the case.It is over-the-top deliberation, full of current references to the Weinstein case.
A new Ozon film is always a sheer delight and he manages to deliver a new one every year, most of them of consistent quality comedies or drama.MON CRIME is pure period fluff set in the 20’s featuring all the flair of colour, costumes and melodrama that Ozone is famous for.
THE CRIME IS MINE is now available on demand June 13 from digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.
L’EMPLOYEE DU MOIS (Employee of the Month)(Belgium 2021) *** Directed by Veronique Jadin
The film’s setting is the office of a company selling cleaners called EcoCleanPro. Middle-aged Ines (Jasmine Douieb), the protagonist and staff at the company, is reliable and eager to please and is always at the beck and call of her boss Patrick.Ines is tasked with mentoring young trainee Melody (Laetitia Mampaka) - whose mother used to work at the company - and she embraces her mentoring role to the sarcastic, closed-off Melody. However, while Ines treats her work seriously, her male co-workers and her boss Patrick (Peter Van den Begin) consistently belittle her, ordering her to do menial tasks.With her patience running out, Ines meets with Patrick to ask him for a raise, and he proceeds to not only disparage her request, but also grab her violently and assault her. Ines pushes him away as Melody walks into the office, and an accidental violent incident is committed. Melody is now complicit in Ines’ crime, and both women must decide how to cover their tracks and clean up their mess
The film clearly has an important message to bring across to employers of both big and small companies. In the case of the film and of many companies in existence as well, the right idea has already been put forward for equal pay for the female staff and workers. However, management just goes through the motions. In the film, the corporate lady puts the responsibility for equal pay to Ines’s boss, Patrick who dismisses it with the reason of insufficient resources. Yet other males in the company have got raises. Lewd unacceptable behaviour (such as the sketching of male organs on Ines’s sketch pad during a meeting) is also dismissed as acceptable humour in the company. The important message of pay equity is not compromised by its delivery with humour in her film.
Director Jadin ups the ante with the accidental murder of Patrick as perfumed by Meld and Ines. This is the case where the females stick together in an otherwise male world. This is the point where director Jadin has a bit too much on the plate to handle with the film faltering with the laughs lessening. The film’s best moments are during the first third.
Director Jadin has a master’s degree in Languages and Literature and has worked in a company before diversifying into film directing. Her first short film, EN FANFARE, was shown at about sixty festivals and received the Grand JuryAward and the interpretation award for Tsilla Chelton at the Brussels Short Film Festival, as well as the award for best short film at the Namur IFF. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH is her first feature length film. She is clearly a director to watch for.
L’EMPLOYEE DU MOIS is a small little film with a big message that is delivered through humour and with the added entertainment of an accident that has to be covered up. From Belgium in French and a little English.
The film is available via VOD and DVD on May the 12th.
LES FEMMES EN OR (Two Women) (Canada 2025) *** Directed by Chloé Robichaud
Violette and Florence no longer understand what's happening to them. Respectively on maternity leave and off...
