LA DOUBLURE (THE VALET)
France, 2006, 85 minutes, Colour.
Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, Daniel Auteuil, Kristen Scott Thomas, Richard Berry, Virginie Ledoyen, Dany Boone, Michael Jonasz, Michelle Aumont.
Directed by Francis Veber.
Francis Veber has been writing comedies for over thirty years. Many of them have become classics (La Cage aux Folles, The Tall Blond Man with the One Black Shoe, Le Placard, Tais Toi). Many of them have been remade in the US (Buddy, Buddy, The Birdcage, Three Fugitives). Veber has himself made several films in the US (Partners, Out on a Limb)
La Doublure, which might have had a better English title with The Stand-in, is firmly in the tradition of the
comedies he has long been making. There is an odd couple, some farcical situations, some comic lines, some mistaken identities and an underlying critique of hypocrisy.
La Doublure is more than a bit on the light side. What if a very successful businessman who has been deceiving his wealthy wife of twenty years during an affair with a top model for over two years? What if the model was sick of the deception and wanted the businessman to get a divorce? What if the smart corporate lawyer advised the model to move in with a valet nonentity, the Stand-in, to make the wife jealous and ask for the divorce? What if it did not work out at all as planned? There you have it.
Moroccan born comedian and mime, Gad Elmaleh is the slightly forlorn valet, desperately in love with his childhood sweetheart (Virginie Ledoyen) who happens to walk past the secretive couple as a photo is taken for a magazine and finds himself embroiled in the deception. Elmaleh looks fairly nondescript but invests his character with warmth and decency. Alice Taglioni (a Gallic Elle MacPherson? lookalike) is also quite charming and genial as the model who goes along with the plot and shows she has a very nice side to her character.
On the other hand, Daniel Auteuil, one of the great French actors who can turn his hand to any role, makes the businessman a monster of selfish rage and manipulation. Kristin Scott Thomas has no trouble in playing his icy and shrewd wife. Richard Berry is the conniving and smooth lawyer.
Many of Veber’s comedies are laugh out loud farces. This is, rather, a smiling comedy with a touch of the bitters. Imagining who might star in the US remake highlights how the film works. Suggestions: Michael Douglas knows how to do the Wall St hypocrite and Glenn Close can do icy wives. Why not Elle MacPherson? herself with Adrien Brody doing the lovelorn hero, pining after Jennifer Love Hewitt? That should work.
1.The comedies of Francis Veber? Odd couples? Criticisms of hypocrisy? Farcical touches, comic touches, mistaken identities? This film in Veber’s tradition?
2.The Paris settings, the Eiffel Tower, the restaurant opposite the Eiffel Tower? Homes? Business offices? The rich and the middle class? The credibility of the locations? For this kind of farce? The jaunty musical score?
3.The title, Francois as a double, as a stand-in? His work as a valet? The situation in which he found himself? Transforming him? His life?
4.The focus on the Levasseur family? Pierre, the business executive, mergers, strikes in his factory at Lille? His business associates? Maitre Foix and his advice? His being the CEO? His relationship with his wife, the twenty years of marriage? The domestic scenes and the formality? Their affection for each other? His wife having sixty percent ownership of the company? The situation for the farce? His going to meet Elena? The rendezvous in the car? The room? The gift? The affair for two years? Her being the top model on all the billboards? Her breaking off with him? His desperation? Elena and the demands? The twenty million euros? His getting a divorce and her giving the money back? Her hopes for their future? Pierre and his cover-up, lying to his wife? The irony of his wife knowing, having her own spies, getting the information? Her testing out her husband? Her intervening, getting the reports, putting up the curtains in the apartment? Her finally confronting her husband, taping him and his confession? Elena and her hearing the confession? Sending Francois? The final comeuppance for Pierre? Christine and her winning?
5.Francois, his work with Richard, seeing them in the swanky cars, discovering that they were valets? Their friendship, Richard boarding with him, his alcoholic mother? Francois and his love for Emilie? The proposal and her refusal? Her opening the bookshop, her debt? Her chatting with her friend at the shop? Her friend putting Francois down? His visits, the lunches? Francois and his parents, his love for his parents, the doctor and his hypochondria, talking with Francois’ father, giving him the bill? The irony of Emilie having to come and take her father home? The irony of Francois walking past Elena and Pierre as they were photographed? In the paper? Pierre and his lies about Francois?
6.The scheme Maitre Foix and his ability manipulate situations? Pierre and the twenty million for Elena? The money for Francois to pay for Emilie’s shop? The proposal? Francois and his shock, his agreement? Elena and her moving in?
7.The odd couple, Francois as a nice man, not handsome, a valet, pining over Emilie? Elena and her beauty, heads turning? Going out with Francois, the posing, the surveillance, the photos? The restaurants, at the club? In the apartment, kissing, in the bed? The photographs – and Pierre’s anger, interrupting the conference in Lille?
8.Richard, his moving out, with his mother, discovering Francois and Elena, his being upset? At work, the other model coming and Richard being amazed? The boss and the waiters and their all gawking?
9.Elena, her character, tall, beautiful, her being with Pierre? Rejecting him? Going along with the plan? Playing up to the photographers? Her getting to understand Francois, the discussions about Emilie, her certainty about the phone calls? Emilie seeing them in the restaurant, Francois seeing Emile with Pasquale? Elena and her explaining everything to Emilie? Going to Francois’ father’s birthday party? The happy ending? Elena thinking all was well with Pierre, the gift from Christine of the tape, his comeuppance? A future for Elena?
10.Francois, his going along with the situation, talking with Richard, Richard’s visitors, his parents and their concern, his mother thinking he was handsome? His coping, going to the fashion show, the restaurants, the curtains in the room? His becoming desperate, Pierre insulting him on the phone? His pining for Emilie, the happy reunion, the birthday party, the happy ending? Richard and his moving into the flat?
11.Richard, as a character, jealous, work? The contrast with Pasquale, the man about town, mobile phones and their music, wooing Emilie, taking her to the restaurant, his spiel, wanting a photo of Elena? Finishing up with Emilie’s assistant?
12.Maitre Foix, power behind the scenes, the negotiations, mediating, facilitating? His sinister role?
13.The doctor, the comedy about his hypochondria? Francois’ parents and their simple lives?
14.The media, the photos, the gossip? People believing the gossip?
15.The finale, the photo of Pierre with the transsexual prostitute? The film ending on a farcical tone – but the exploration of hypocrisies? Decent people? Veber and his comedy on the side of the angels?
