Plot
Wealthy, inventive bachelor Colin endeavors to find a cure for his lover Chloe after she's diagnosed with an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs.
Release Year: 2013
Rating: 6.6/10 (6,157 voted)
Critic's Score: 54/100
Director: Michel Gondry
Stars: Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh
Storyline
Set in a charmingly surreal Paris, wealthy bachelor Colin spends his time developing his pianocktail (a cocktail-making piano) and devouring otherworldly dishes prepared by his trusty chef Nicolas. When Colin learns that his best friend Chick, a fellow acolyte of the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre, has a new American girlfriend, our lonely hero attends a friend's party in hopes of falling in love himself. He soon meets Chloe and, before they know it, they're dancing to Duke Ellington and plunging headfirst into a romance. Their whirlwind courtship is tested when an unusual illness plagues Chloe; a flower begins to grow in her lungs. To save her, Colin discovers the only cure is to surround Chloe with a never-ending supply of fresh flowers.
Writers: Michel Gondry, Luc Bossi
Cast: Romain Duris -
Colin
Audrey Tautou -
Chloé
Gad Elmaleh -
Chick
Omar Sy -
Nicolas
Aïssa Maïga -
Alise
Charlotte Le Bon -
Isis
Sacha Bourdo -
La souris
Vincent Rottiers -
Le religieux
Philippe Torreton -
Jean-Sol Partre
Laurent Lafitte -
Le directeur de société
(as Laurent Lafitte de la comédie française)
Alain Chabat -
Gouffé
Zinedine Soualem -
Le directeur de l'usine d'armement
Natacha Régnier -
La marchande de remèdes
Marina Rozenman -
La duchesse de Bovouard
Mathieu Paulus -
Le Chuiche
(as Matthieu Paulus)
Usually, I do not care about how a book is adapted, as long as the
movie is good on its own. In that case it was completely different; I
am a huge, massive Boris Vian fan, and I never thought his style (for
example the way he took metaphors literally) could be set upon a
screen.
That is to say, until I've heard that Gondry was directing L'écume des
Jours. Sometimes, those things just make sense; Gondry is the only one
who could have transformed Boris Vian into something visual, and that
is exactly what he did, and with no CGI, only old fashioned tricks. The
DIY way ladies and gentlemen, that's what it is all about.
Maybe many will dislike this movie. Others, like me, will love it
passionately, for its effusiveness, for its communicative joy, for its
unrelenting sadness. But at least, people will feel what Boris Vian is
all about. And I mean especially for the English speaking countries,
where Boris Vian is really not well known and most of the time poorly
translated: by transcribing his style to a visual dimension, Gondry
made it universal.
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