In a summery Paris boy meets girl. She is a french lesbian who occasionally dates men. He is a straightforward American photographer, and their names, Paul and Paulette, give this stylishly offbeat-foodie themed romcom from debut filmmaker Jethro Murray its generic title, playing in this year’s Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week.
History tells us that in 1941/2 the United States intended to make France a ‘vassal’ state and almost succeeded with ‘Amgot’, De Gaulle objected. Despite all that the nation has taken up American spellings and US voiceovers in many transport systems. Deciding to re-enact the guillotining of Marie Antoinette Paul severs Paulette’s hair. Phone numbers are exchanged.
Inviting him to the soigné apartment borrowed from a friend she tries to seduce Paul by spinning a yarn about France’s first celebrity murderer in the Malle Sanglante affair. And so begins their relationship. Roaming around the French capital they do fun things together like imagining foodie treats and what a variety of iconic characters might taste like – from Ghenghis Khan to Hitler and even Kim Jong Un. They even ‘discover the pubic hair’ of Elvis Presley, Paulette’s teenage idol. They mull over the complexities of love and living together: “If things go sideways you shouldn’t go back”.
But Paulette’s flirty loucheness fails to impress the uncomplicated American Paul: “You’re always putting on a show it must be exhausting”. In other words she’s a pretentious drag.
Smitten despite all this Paul hires a VW Beetle and persuades Paulette to join him on an ad-hoc adventure. She agrees, reluctantly, but must visit her parents Charlotte and Gilles, an ex rugby player who murdered a child. When the young couple arrive we discover a dysfunctional household. And the young couple start to question their own motives in this vague ‘nouvelle vague’ romcom that winds its scenic way through Paris, Alsace and Munich.
There is a whiff of the Sixties in the snoozy score and the mid-century furniture in the apartment the couple stay in on their romantic interlude. This is a confident debut that has its moments but doesn’t really stand out in the genre despite game performances from Galiana and Benati. @MeredithTaylor
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2024 | CRITICS’ WEEK 2024