My best friend - Mon meilleur ami
Dear all,
Have you ever heard about the new film from Patrice Leconte? It is
called in French "mon meilleur ami, "my best friend" in English.
I recommend it to you for two reasons.
Firstly, the topic of the film is related to friendship and let us ask the question "what is a best friend? how can we recognize him/her? what worths friendship?".
Served by two exceptional actors, Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon, this film points out human feelings and selfish from each of us.
The
bad guy is represented by Daniel Auteuil who plays an art merchant,
familiar with the Hotel Drouot in Paris for sales by auction.
The
sincere and gullible fool (naif) character (personnage) is played by
Dany Boon. Everyone would like to get a friend like him as he is so
cute, sincere and has such an unconditional admiration for "his best
friend" who does not deserve (meriter, etre digne de) so many kindness
(gentillesse, bonte)!
Pitch extracted from the Toronto International Film Festival :
Mon meilleur ami is a uniquely entertaining buddy (copain) film. The
twist? The buddy is missing! François (French mega-star Daniel Auteuil)
is a middle-aged antique dealer. He’s got a stylish apartment and a
fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest
acquaintances (connaissances), he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them
actually likes him. He’s arrogant, self-centred and harsh (bourru), and they
don’t believe he even has a friend. His business partner Catherine
(Julie Gayet) makes him a bet (pari): if he can produce his meilleur ami, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it’s hers.
Having accepted the wager (pari), François naively tears through his address book, trying to shoehorn (chausser) an increasingly unlikely series of contacts into the all-important role. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, magnanimous cabbie (chauffeur de taxi) named Bruno (the adorable Dany Boon). Bruno’s chatty (bavard), lowbrow ways grate (grincer) against François’s designer temperament, but he covets (convoiter) the other man’s finesse with people. He convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the “three S’s” – being sociable, smiling and sincere – though they don’t come easy. Is the answer to François’s problem sitting beside him in the taxi?
Secondly, Patrice Leconte is a good director
(realisateur). I had the opportunity to take part to this film as a
simple walk-on part (figurant) in one scene, the one of the sale by
auction in Drouot. I was two ranks behind Daniel Auteuil and Julie
Gayet, playing a potential art buyer and art lover (amateur d'art).
I
noticed that nearly all the walk-on parts were in a fuzzy image (image
floutee) on the film. Bad luck for us even if it was a great experience
to work under Patrice Leconte's instructions.
How did I get this job? Quite easy, just looked at an ad at Drouot and sent a mail to the casting production with the below picture.
A few days after, one lady from the production company called me and
gave me an appointment for January 6, 2006 at the Hotel Drouot. When I
arrived, I had to sign my contract and wait in a room with other
colleagues. Some of them were dressed and has their hair done (se faire
coiffer).
We waited long time to meet and be directed by Patrice
Leconte. Very professional and precise! Daniel Auteuil had a good
humour sense and I was quite surprised about it as he seems to be so
serious!
I met some guys who were used to take part to films and the atmosphere was quite nice...
Recently, Patrice Leconte declared he will only realize three more films before retiring.
Even
if it is true he did some commercial films like Les Bronzes, he also
realized a treasure which is not so famous and it is a pity. I really
appreciated it during the Adventure Festival at Le Grand Rex in Paris
this year. The title of this film/report is "Dogora".
The filmmaker presents a series of striking images of the land and
people of modern Cambodia, set to the composer Etienne Perruchon's
piece, "Dogora". To discover if you have never heard about it as it is a sensitive work (oeuvre).
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58823
http://wwws.warnerbros.fr/movies/dogora/
http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/dogora-movie-dvd-french.aspx
For further details about Patrice Leconte:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=99108&mod=bio
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800024229/bio
http://cineuropa.org/interview.aspx?lang=en&documentID=70520
About Daniel Auteuil:
http://worldfilm.about.com/cs/actor1/p/Danielauteuil.htm
http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/fulldetail/id/196065
About Dany Boon:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0200702/
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1804556722
So, just one word let us go to the cinema...
Wish you a Merry Christmas and talk to you shortly!
With best wishes,
Ceraulen