Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Bernard Rapp's previous feature Tiré à part (Limited Edition) had prepared me for this stimulating exercise in domination by mind games. It is very impressive, the way Rapp lays out the slow decline of Nicolas Rivière through luxury, laziness and the unwillingness to look squarely at the danger he's in. His job description is taster, but really he is living a surrogate life for his boss Delamont (for the latter, think Howard Hughes). The older man wants to watch the younger go parachuting, skiing, take a trip into the desert to sharpen his senses,even make love to a blonde at a party. For those who are looking for a homosexual basis for the relationship between these two men, the scene with Nicolas starting to warm up the blonde in bed, only to be dismissed by Delamont who wants to claim his prize will provide more than enough ammunition.Bernard Giraudeau is splendid as Delamont; he understands how to make a young man feel favored then inadequate through a minimum of words. He used that purring voice and sly grin before, in Drops of Water on Burning Rocks (Ozon), where he made life hell for his teenage lover. Jean-Pierre Lorit is adequate, but no more, as Nicolas. Florence Thomassin reminds me of a fashion model who has strayed into acting; her height and good bones don't make me forget how stiff she is.

This movie completely fascinated me. Nicolas, is a young waiter at a first class restaurant where Monsieur Frederic Delamont, a multimillionaire businessman, spots him as the ideal candidate as his taster. Nicolas' job is to taste all the dishes his boss is going to eat, since he can't eat fish nor cheese. However, the relation between both men starts to get deeper as the old man starts to get obsessed with Nicolas and controls his life. He then bestows on his taster all kinds of gifts. Nicola can't believe his luck, but he doesn't know the stakes he's risking for all this luxury. Frederic manipulates his employee into doing all sort of things and Nicolas doesn't even know why he agrees. At first, Nicolas acts for money, but after a while he falls prey to Frederic's obsessions even though this means destroying his relationship with his girlfriend, Beatrice. She sees how this man has changed his boyfriend and Nicolas doesn't even realize it.I invite you to enjoy this movie, it'll make you think about how human beings are let into situations they can't control, and no matter how much harm they get out of them, they can't stop playing that auto-destructive game.

Bernard Rapp's second movie has really not much to boast about. It is a rather plain, predictable and boring effort. Besides Bernard Giraudeau, the direction of actors is one of the weakest points of the film. Thomassin and Lorit are one-dimensional and most of the " second hands" are totally insipid. If the film makes absolutely no effort to demark itself visually from the average t.v production, it uses a lousy and pretentious symbolic which is all too blatant to be effective. Cheapy all through.

This movie isn't a whodunit, since we know from the start pretty much what happens--it's just a question of WHY? And the movie answered that question to my satisfaction. Interesting and plausible psychologically, and the food presentations woven throughout are mouth-watering. Best of all to a non-native French speaker, I found it fairly easy to understand all the dialogue.