Happiness Never Comes Alone (Un bonheur n'arrive jamais seul)(命中註定搭錯線)

I feel it coming. A really big headache ! The triple F (French Film Festival)  like the tricolor, has come to Hong Kong. The next fortnight will be hectic. Somehow, I got to squeeze time from my busy work/study/talk/concert schedule to accommodate seeing the kind of films I like. That will mean inter alia, hurtling through the MTR corridors, doing my best not to knock people over, drastic time cuts for that other love of my life, hundreds of concubines beckoning on my bookshelf, sandwiches and coffees instead of proper meals, performing impossible logistic of moving from spot A and/or B/C to the location where the latest film will be screened, groping gingerly on the steps of the relevant movie houses before my eyes have gotten used to the sudden darkness upon entry and hopefully not, having to restrain myself from exploding into a florid display of abusive words after being exposed to 110 minutes of banal celluloid. But it began pleasantly enough last night. It's a film featuring my favorite French actress, Sophie Marceau. It's Un bonheur n'arrive jamais seul ( Happiness Never Comes Alone).

It's a light-hearted contemporary French comedy, a mime-like slapstick or burlesque which looks like a perfect embodiment of Murphy's Law (everything which can possibly go wrong will go wrong!). It began with a beautiful looking middle-aged French lady rushing out of the entrance of a posh metal and glass building in the rain and in the process stepping onto one side of an overlong red gauze shawl and sustaining a fall. She was instantly helped to get up by some gallant French gentlemen passing by but insisted that she was OK despite the fall. All this was witnessed by a balding bohemian type in his convertible whose hood which got stuck outside of the same entrance after attending an interview with regard to a possible contract. She was trying to hail a taxi but had no success. Worse, whilst waiting, she was given an unneeded shower from the sprays from a roadside puddle by a speeding car just in time to be late, immediately after the bohemian raised a hand to warn her of the on-coming car. Too bad. His car hood remained stuck and rainwater kept collecting on the car seats. She still failed to have any luck with taxis. He laughed it off and offered to take her to where she wanted to go IF she didn't mind. She lifted her head, made a characteristically French gesture with her hands signifying reluctant acceptance her "destiny" and got into his car. They looked into each others eyes. There seemed instant chemistry or is it electricity (?) in their looks. But both just engaged in polite exploratory chit chat. The journey soon ended in an elegant quarter. She introduced herself as a talent scout and he as an ad song composer. The lady said good bye, The man said, "on se voit (we'll see each other). The lady smiled and left. The man stayed to make sure that she's safely inside the main entrance to the mansion. 20 seconds later, the main entrance of the mansion re-opened. The lady emerged, rushed over to the car, held the man head with both her hands and kissed him passionately

In the next scene, we see them in her bed. Suddenly we hear the voice of a child. A big round face appeared at the door. The man quickly jumped off the bed with incredible speed and covered himself with a white bed sheet on the far side of the bed from the door, in mortal fear. He learned that the lady got a son. In an earlier scene in which he was playing jazz at a club, we hear him declare his abhorrence of children during a casual conversation prompted by one of his friends' comment about how cute a lovely young boy sitting quietly on a chair looked, completely absorbed by what he was hearing from a pair of ear phones whose circumference is bigger than his head . Then he discovered another, and ...another. After the third bedroom door was opened, he asked if there were any more. Much to his relief, there was none. This is the start of an impossible romance. The lady was Charlotte (Sophie Marceau), a woman with two ex husbands and three kids, one 4, the other 7 and the third 14-15. Her current ex was Alain Porshe, the boss of a huge multinational which
is the number 1 in French entertainment and she works for a charitable
foundation established by Porshe specializing in discovering young
artistic talent which deserve help. The man was Sacha (Gad Elmaleh), a
very talented jazz/classical pianist who just lives for the moment, who plays jazz for free at a night club out of
kicks for the genre and who never misses any chance of chatting up and
sleeping with pretty girls there, a guy who at his age is still having his laundry and meals done by his mom and who makes a living composing catchy advertising
ditty which he could turn out in anything from 3 minutes to half an hour
and who is partner with a completely dedicated shadow show choreographer Laurent  (Maurice Barthélémy), a short bald guy who is always full of ideas about what to do next. He loves his piano, his music, his friends, his life of carefree fun.

The film is directed by James Huth and co-written by him with Sonja Shallito.. What makes this slapstick comedy totally credible is the low-keyed acting by Sophie and Gad, whose timing and expressions are just perfect and had the audience laughing almost non-stops at the unexpected problems presented by life with three kids. It turns out that despite his congenital aversion to children, Sacha had a real knack for making children happy with his incessantly inventive antics . The film ends with Charlotte's extremely jealous husband Alain who put the squeeze on by using his enormous influence in having all of Sacha contracts canceled conceding defeat and coming to a kind "detente" with Sacha by lifting the alimony condition that Charlotte shall not have any man around her house and Sacha returning to the side of Charlotte upon learning, after having had a successful run of his musical at Broadway, that before he finally decided to leave for New York, his buddy Laurent had had a private conversation with Charlotte during which he managed to persuade her to let him go to New York for his own good. The film ends with all three of Charlotte's children jumping on to Sacha's body after he accidentally fell on the ground, hugging him on the garden floor outside of Charlotte's new residence, with, of course, Charlotte too in his arms. It's a kind of comedy which I cannot see any Americans, Brits, Germans, Italians or Chinese making: perfect timing for the slapsticks and perfectly "natural" and un-exaggerated acting in a society where everything is possible.   A perfect start to the film festival. Shall I continue to be so lucky?