A talented woman struggles to get out from under the shadow of her father in this comedy. Lolita (Marilou Berry) is the 20-year-old daughter of Étienne Cassard (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a wealthy and well-known editor and writer, and most of the people she meets seem to be more interested in her dad than in her; her zaftig figure doesn't help her self-esteem much, either. Lolita is a gifted singer and has been studying with a voice coach, Sylvia (Agnès Jaoui); however, as it turns out, Sylvia has a
husband, Pierre (Laurent Grévill), who is a novelist and hopes that Cassard might be willing to help him get his new book into print and onto bookstore shelves. The great writer seems to take a cavalier attitude toward nearly everyone around him, though, including his wife, Karine (Virginie Desarnauts). Lolita strikes up a friendship with a young man named Sebastien (Keine Bouhiza) which seems to be leading to romance, but when Lolita learns that Sebastien wants to become a writer, she finds herself wondering if he really wants her, or just an introduction to her dad. Jaoui, who plays Sylvia, also directed Comme une Image (aka Look at Me) and co-wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The pleasure of the film, as in many French films from Renoir to Rohmer, is in the exactitude of observation, the accuracy of the portrait and the elegance of the writing.
Both an implicit protest against the blindness of power and an equally fervent protest against the acquiescence of men and women who are too weak or too compromised to stand up for themselves -- that is, most people.
Jaoui sets her wryly observant sights on family, artistic ambition and the tyranny of physical appearance, and the result is a bright, briskly moving film whose modest scale belies the universality of its themes.
Examines a variety of questions, such as superficiality versus substance, materialism versus self-worth, and taking advantage of others versus forming sincere relationships.
considering this script was a winner at the 2004 Cannes film festival, my expectations for this 'comedy' were much higher than this film's execution. finely acted, wonderfully self-absorbed characters, good script, but something was lost in the translation.
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