Succeeds with believable characters and situations born of lives well studied.
Overview
Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
The movie's unique appeal lies less in the style than the substance -- particularly, in the emerging hero at the centre of the tale.
Slyly written, the intelligent social satire is surely acted and ... confidently, ably directed.
There are some things the French do better than we do, and the small movie is one.
A worldly-wise, compassionate and charmingly acted Gallic comedy.
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