Episodic, pretentious, and more than a little silly, writer/director Laurent Firode's meditation on the existential unpredictability of life occasionally feels like a calculated parody of French art-house cinema: It's the kind of movie in which characters chain-smoke endless unfiltered cigarettes, hang around at all hours in coffee houses, and mouth undergraduate philosophical tropes at the drop of a
chapeau. There's no plot, per se; instead, Firode gives us a look at the everyday trials and tribulations of a seemingly unconnected bunch of middle- and working-class Parisians, beginning with an appliance-store salesgirl (Audrey Tautou, of AMELIE), a newly hired...
Released:
2001
Rated:
R
Length:
90 mins