This was the second of the three (to date) movies directed by Writer-Actress Valerie Lemercier and failed to out-perform her initial effort, a remake of the Sacha Guitry boulevard comedy Quadrille, though I'm delighted to say that her third effort, Palais Royale, was a huge critical and popular success in France.
To a certain extent her success as a comic actress (she won a Best Supporting Actress Cesar for Les Visiteurs, which really put her on the map by virtue of its domestic and International success) has been an albatross around her neck because she is rarely allowed to demonstrate her 'straight' acting skills as she did in Vendredi Soir. She has acted in all three films she directed as her Frederique in Le Derriere is in her tradition of slightly off-the-wall characters that she is uniquely able to humanize. Following in the footsteps of such assorted actresses as Jessie Matthews (First A Girl) Julie Andrews (Victor Victoria) and Barbra Streisand (Yentl) Lemercier drags up to play a boy, initially to gain access to a gay club (don't ask) and later to enter the life of her father (once she has traced him to Paris) who, in middle age is definitely gay, a celebrated art dealer and one half of a long-standing gay relationship. Lemercier is able to score points on two levels simultaneously, the gay versus the straight and the sophisticated gay versus the crude gay (think say, Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan versus Julian Clary/Lily Savage and still, despite a tad of coarseness - as when 'Frederick', out driving with her father and his lover, needs to pee and is obliged to do so against a tree in order to keep up the charade - manages to touch us by the sensitive way she handles the basic situation. A fine film from a fine filmmaker.
To a certain extent her success as a comic actress (she won a Best Supporting Actress Cesar for Les Visiteurs, which really put her on the map by virtue of its domestic and International success) has been an albatross around her neck because she is rarely allowed to demonstrate her 'straight' acting skills as she did in Vendredi Soir. She has acted in all three films she directed as her Frederique in Le Derriere is in her tradition of slightly off-the-wall characters that she is uniquely able to humanize. Following in the footsteps of such assorted actresses as Jessie Matthews (First A Girl) Julie Andrews (Victor Victoria) and Barbra Streisand (Yentl) Lemercier drags up to play a boy, initially to gain access to a gay club (don't ask) and later to enter the life of her father (once she has traced him to Paris) who, in middle age is definitely gay, a celebrated art dealer and one half of a long-standing gay relationship. Lemercier is able to score points on two levels simultaneously, the gay versus the straight and the sophisticated gay versus the crude gay (think say, Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan versus Julian Clary/Lily Savage and still, despite a tad of coarseness - as when 'Frederick', out driving with her father and his lover, needs to pee and is obliged to do so against a tree in order to keep up the charade - manages to touch us by the sensitive way she handles the basic situation. A fine film from a fine filmmaker.