MY BEST FRIEND
France, 2006, 90 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon.
Directed by Patrice Leconte.
If you were a fan of French films and you especially appreciated the films of Daniel Auteuil and you went to a preview of My Best Friend without knowing anything about it, you may well have thought that you were seeing another Francis Veber comedy about bonding between two highly unlikely types. It may not have the zip of many of Veber’s comedies or the farcical situations, but they are certainly there.
However, the point to make is that this is not a film by Francis Veber. Rather, it is a film by that very serious director, Patrice Leconte. His films include M.Hire, The Hairdresser’s Husband, Ridicule, Man on the Train, definitely not comedies.
The film does have quite a serious undertone. Daniel Auteuil plays a self-preoccupied, self-centred antiques dealer, Francois Coste, who, on a whim, pays an exorbitant amount of money for a Greek vase, a vase whose space was filled with tears for a dead friend – so it is said. The point comes up whether he really has any friends. He takes a bet that within ten days he can produce a friend. He goes the rounds of a list and finds that these associates do not see him as a friend at all. And his daughter finds him difficult to deal with and like.
By chance, he encounters the same cabby, Bruno, several times (Dany Boon with whom Daniel Auteuil appeared in Veber’s Le Doublure, The Valet). Bruno is a very nice man, very sociable, putting people at their ease – except that he is a walking computer for facts for TV quizzes that irritates more than a few and that he goes to pieces with nerves when he goes to auditions for the shows.
As you might guess, Francois grills Bruno about friendship, definitions and techniques and makes a hash of every attempt to be sociable. Bruno, however, warms to him, is helpful about Francois’s daughter’s asthma, invites Francois to his parents’ house for dinner. He is prepared to go to great lengths as a friend only to find that Francois has been using him to win the bet.
That is probably enough plot though there is quite a bit more before Francois learns the meaning of friendship and Bruno can acknowledge it.
It is not every film (or any other film?) that has its great dramatic and emotional climax an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionnaire. But My Best Friend does – ‘phone a friend’ - and anyone who has watched and liked their version of the program should enjoy it. By this stage Leconte has moved from the serious to the comic to the sentimental and a feelgood parable about selfishness and the realities of true friendship.
1.The particular French style of serious drama blended with comedy? Satire?
2.The city of Paris, the detail, streets and hospitals, churches and auction rooms, cafés and apartments, homes? The musical score?
3.The title, the irony, Francois and his looking for a best friend but not knowing what one was? The truth about friendship, the definition? The various slogans; Jesus is your friend; Phone a friend?
4.The portrait of Francois, his age, experience, personality, self-preoccupied, at the funeral, his greedy attitude towards the antique, speaking the words to the wife? Discussions with Catherine, going to the auction, his buying the vase, the story of the vase and friendship tears, his greed, impulsiveness, the money? Beating off rivals? His anxiety with the delivery of the vase? Having a meal with his group of associates, their talk, friendship, his bet? His relationship with his daughter, at home, her asthma? Meeting Bruno in the taxi and giving him short shrift? Correcting him when he met him the second time?
5.The portrait of Bruno, his age, personality, pleasant, his visits to home, his parents’ devotion, his waving to them across the street when he drove home? His wife having left him? Giving the answers and all the information, his friends being exasperated? Driving the taxi, meeting Francois, telling him the detail of the streets? His going to the audition, knowing the answers, the mental block, nerves?
6.Francois and his list, going to the associates, none of them wanting to be his friend? His daughter and her aloofness?
7.Catherine in herself, as a business partner of? Francois, her companion, the home scenes, the bet?
8.Francois meeting Bruno, their talking, Francois upset? Bruno and his friendliness towards the passengers, chatting with them? Francois and his deciding that Bruno could tell him what a friend was, trying to define it? Sociable, sympathetic? His buying the round of drinks and everybody leaving? Nobody knowing who he was? Going to the artist and the artist getting exasperated? His having no flair? The contrast with Bruno and his sociability?
9.The visit to the parents, the meal, Francois buying the table, telling them it was an antique, a big amount of money, the reason for buying the table?
10.Bruno and his meeting Francois’ daughter, her asthma, trying to suggest a doctor and her bad reaction, at home, the pecans, showing that she had an allergy? The bond between the two?
11.Friendship with risk and test, the setting up of the robbery, Bruno buying the tools, entering the house, his being caught, the audience, his being upset? His smashing the vase? Catherine and the group saying that this was not true friendship? That Francois had lost his bet?
12.Francois and his change, better relationship with his daughter, Catherine revealing that it was a copy that was smashed, giving the vase to the man who wanted to buy it? The irony that he was a television producer, Francois organising Bruno to get on the quiz?
13.Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Francois, the replacement, his nervousness, meeting the producer? The details of the quiz, his progressing, not using any helps? The million-euro question? The phone a friend, ringing Francois, their talking on air, the conversation going on about friendship and intimacy? The producer letting it go on? Bruno and his winning the million euros, his parents happy?
14.The year passing, Francois with the group, Francois better? Bruno paying for the meal, Francois’ birthday, the chat? Bruno spending the money? Driving the taxi, doing what he liked best? His ability to transform Francois – a best friend?
