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My Wife Is An Actress

2001, Movie, R, 93 mins

My Wife Is An Actress: Review

MY WIFE IS AN ACTRESS | MA FEMME EST UNE ACTRICE
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A comedy of romantic misadventure that blurs the boundaries between real and reel life: actor-turned-director Yvan Attal is married to French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, and the couple star as spouses named Yvan and Charlotte, respectively a sportswriter and an actress. Their marriage seems happy, though Yvan is uncomfortable seeing Charlotte naked on screen, resents the constant attention of fans and is annoyed by the many day-to-day reminders that she's a star and he isn't. The real trouble begins when Charlotte accepts a role in an English-language film opposite notorious roue John (Terence Stamp), and must spend several months shooting in England. Yvan becomes consumed by suspicion and jealousy after a conversation with the boorish Georges (Lionel Abelanski), whose conviction that love scenes always contain an element of reality plants a seed of doubt in Yvan's mind. Yvan badgers Charlotte by phone and pays surprise visits to the set, arriving one memorable day to find the entire cast and crew stark naked, confirming his worst suspicions about movie people. He isn't mollified by Charlotte's explanation that following a fight with the director (Keith Allen), she declared that if she had to do her love scene naked she wanted everyone naked, only to find herself taken at her word. Charlotte neglects to say that Yvan's persistent hectoring is affecting her work and driving her closer to the suave John. For his part, Yvan, who starts acting lessons in order to better understand Charlotte's profession, begins flirting with a fellow student (Ludivine Sagnier). And on top of everything, Yvan's volatile, pregnant sister, Nathalie (Noemie Lvosky), who can work the Holocaust into any argument, is locked in an escalating battle with her non-Jewish husband, Vincent (Laurent Bateau). As Nathalie's due date approaches, they fight ever more vociferously over matters ranging from the child's name to whether or not he should be circumcised. Encouraged by veteran producer Claude Berri, Attal expanded this feature from a short he made five years earlier and it has the shaggy, unpolished quality of a student project. Gainsbourg (the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French music icon Serge Gainsbourg), is charming and Stamp gives a subtle performance as a habitual seducer unfazed by age (he could be Charlotte's grandfather), but it's hard to tell whether Attal means the fictional Yvan to be such an colossal jerk. His abrasive obnoxiousness undermines the film's generally light tone, and seriously deflects sympathy away from his character's dilemma. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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