I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This really is a bundle of laughs, and they never stop from beginning to end. Daniel Auteuil, better known for serious roles, here shows himself as a superb comedian with good timing and just the right touch. Pierre Salvadori is the director, and after making this film he went on to direct Audrey Tautou, the Elf, twice, in PRICELESS (2006, see my review), and BEAUTIFUL LIES (2010, see my review). I noticed that this film was dedicated to the late Marie Trintignant, who died tragically in this year at the age of only 41. Salvadori had directed her in WHITE LIES (1998) and it is very touching that he remembered her with a tribute. The female lead in this film is the omni-present Sandrine Kiberlain, who seems to be in everything. As she so often does, she plays a slightly pathetic woman (in this case she is a young widow) who nevertheless sets various hearts on fire. The main story is carried to its full comic potential in a most amazing way. Auteuil is hastening through a park one dark night because he is late to work. He is the head waiter at a small brasserie called Chez Jean. (Although the name is fictitious, the film is shot in a real Paris restaurant, though I do not recognise it and cannot say where it is, unfortunately. It is not as small as Brasserie Balzar, one of my favourites, but small brasseries are really very rare nowadays in Paris, and I wish I could find this one.) He comes across a man about to hang himself from the branch of a tree. He rushes up and saves him. There is an old proverb that if you save a man's life, you then become responsible for him. Well, this film carries that thought to the most extreme extent possible. The man is played by José Garcia. He does a wonderful job and the character he creates is so exasperating, and also so comical, that it adds to the hilarity of the film immensely. Having saved Garcia, Auteuil is now stuck with him. Garcia has no money, no place to live, no job, and no prospects. So Auteuil takes him in and stands guard to stop him trying suicide again. He then gets him work in his own brasserie and commences a hilarious search for the girl who broke his heart by leaving him, who turns out to be Kiberlain, who runs a florist shop. The entanglements and complexities of the story, and their comical results, become increasingly astounding and it is impossible to stop laughing. Salvadori and four other people collaborated on the brilliant script, and the result has all the polish of a much-rewritten and perfected comedy masterpiece. The film has an unexpected ending, but with such a story, the unexpected is expected. Hats off to all concerned!

In Pierre Salvadori's film 'Aprez Vouz', Daniel Autiel's character plays a man whose life is ruined after a would-be suicide, whose life he saves, subsequently becomes dependent on him. Some of the comedy is painful, and most of it is stupid, but it's done with a certain underhand style, and the development of the plot, while not exactly plausible, moves the story onwards in unexpected directions. It drags in places, but it's hard to avoid smiling in others - overall, it's hardly a masterpiece of French cinema, but it is a gentle, quirky piece, endowed with a refreshing air of innocence (such as rarely circulates in Hollywood comedy).

Remember that Owen Wilson movie You, Me And Dupree that came out a couple of summers ago where a bloke moves in with a young couple and inadvertently ruins their lives? Well, imagine if instead of a laid back surf slacker he was a depressed and desperate man on the verge of killing himself and you'd have something similar to Apres Vous, where a simple good deed leads to all manner of disasters.It begins when Antoine (Daniel Auteuil), an over-worked head waiter at an exclusive restaurant takes a short cut through a park on the way to meet his long-suffering girlfriend. Along the way, he comes across Louis (Jose Garcia) attempting to hang himself from a tree and promptly rescues him. Taking pity on him, Antoine invites Louis to stay with him and his girlfriend for a while until he can get back on his feet. This act of kindness however inadvertently opens the door for all sorts of social disasters, especially when Antoine takes it upon himself to reconcile Louis with his ex-girlfriend Blanche...The result is one incredibly funny, if occasionally rather sad film. As Louis and Antoine blunder from one mishap to another the laughs come thick and fast, not least of all when they give Louis's blind grandmother a lift in Antoine's car without her knowing her grandson is on the back seat, but the comedy is also finely balanced by a dose of sentimentality. Thankfully, it's not heavy handed, but sometimes when Louis is wandering around with sadness etched on his features it's hard not to feel sorry for him. It pays off though, his transformation from a rather pathetic little boy into the cool, confident and professional restaurant wine expert is incredibly uplifting and should raise a smile to even the most hardened cynic's face.The star of the film though is definitely Antoine. Daniel Auteuil's performance is nothing short of spot on, imbuing his character with a mixture of everyday charm and a tendency to blunder into cack-handed stupidity. As events pile up on him in a Basil-Fawlty style string of calamity, his good nature and enthusiasm make him a very likable comic hero indeed.Fans of screwball comedy then will be in hog's heaven. It may be geared more towards those who understand the French sense of humour, but fans of Fawlty Towers, Meet the Parents/Fockers and Cary Grant's farcical romps from the 1940s should find plenty to keep them entertained.

One of the worst French movies I've ever seen (and I'm a fan of French movies). Was it trying to be a 'madcap comedy', like 30's Carole Lombard films? Unbelievable characters, unbelievable behaviors, unbelievable acting. Such a sad mess. Auteuil, who earned his fame in the marvellous movies 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon de la Source', where as a former TV comic, he stunned the French public with his performance as a turn of the century Midi peasant, is absolutely wasted in this movie. One can see his skill in trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but he's unable to overcome a stupid script, an idiotic concept and one can only assume he did it for the money. To be avoided at all costs. We don't want to encourage these people.