La Delicatesse (一吻巴黎)

As there was no concert which I would like to go to, I saw a film on Saturday. It was a film which no Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, American, English or even Italians could or would have produced. Based upon a script which won 10 literary prizes by  David Foenkinos, directed by himself and his brother Stephane,and starring Audrey Tautou and Francois Damiens, La Delicatesse is a unique mix of light-hearted comedy and an almost impossible romance.

As the film opens, we see a young lady with huge big doll-like eyes and Mia Farrow type limbs and body: Nathalie (Tautou), entering a French cafe. She appears completely self-absorbed and pays no attention to anybody but is silently observed by  more than one man sitting on tables or before the bar table. One of them is François (Pio Marmai) who probably out of boredom speculates what she would order. He is seized by a crazy idea: if she were to order apricot juice, he would make a move. She orders a cafe, hesitates and orders an apricot juice. We next see them leaving the exit of the cafe, kissing each other and Nathalie saying how funny François is and how odd it is that they should be meeting like that. In the third scene we see them married, fairy-tale fashion and in the fourth, about three years later, we see them entertaining their respective in-laws, one of them casually mentioning that they should start thinking about giving them some grandchildren. Nathalie says that she is not quite ready because for the moment, she wants a bit more time to themselves. To get rid of them, François tells them he would follow their advice after his wife says that she is tired and goes into the bedrooom and then instantly abandons them, leaving them with their "what on earth is he doing" look on their face in the tiny sitting room of their Paris apartment.  Then we fast forward to another morning some time later when Nathalie got the news that François was involved in a fatal traffic accident. The lady doctor outside the surgery tells Nathalie that they are doing their best but that the signs are not promising. This is followed by a funeral in which all Nathalie's friends and relatives give her their heart-felt condolences. Then the real story starts with Nathalie throwing herself completely into her work, putting in gratuitous extra overtime at the office to help her forget François and how an unlikely love triangle develops between Nathalie, her boss , the suave, well dressed , civilized but unhappily married Charles (Bruno Todeschini) and Markus, (François Damiens) one of her subordinate staffs, a big hunky, slightly clumsy, very timid and sensitive Swede with balding frizzy hair who always wears the same nondescript brownish sweater to the office and not particularly good at his work and who walks about in the office corridor with a file in his hands swinging his shoulders as if he were a gorilla.

One day, for no apparent reasons, when Nathalie was asking that quiet and unassuming Swede to report to her about a certain project, Plan # 114, for which he did not do particularly well, he was surprised that instead of getting a big lecture on how he must improve, she gave him a big kiss on the mouth and then forgot all about Plan #114!. From then on one thing led to another and Nathalie ended up by taking him to her grandmother's garden where she showed him where she did everything at different stages of her life from infancy and how she would play hide and seek there. The film ends with Markus asking spontaneously why they should they not play "hide and seek" there. Nathalie hesitated a little and then said why not. Markus then went to a place where she told him was her favourite hiding place. As the screen darkens, we hear Markus' voice- over saying that that is where he wants to be found.

It's a very simple story, well presented, full of little humorous episodes, showing the foibles of human nature, the unpredictable whimsicality of our emotions and moods, petty jealousies, office gossips. friendly "nosiness" between female bosom friends, done quasi-Tati style mixed in with thoughtful little gestures of love and concern over life's trivialities, as only the French know how to. Were it not the excellent acting skill of Tautou, Damiens and Todescini whose timing was perfect, I'm sure the film would have been a resounding flop. So we really must thank the actors and the directors for their split second timing for making us feel as if this otherwise totally incredible plot to be the most "natural" thing in the world for the duration of those 109 minutes when the projector was rolling.The romance in the film is all hints and suggestions, never explicit. If it is
moving, it moves  because of its silences, its absences and its
omissions. Perhaps that's something it may well be worth the while of some of our Chinese directors to start thinking about.