Great Film overall

Absolutely Brilliant!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Two divorced friends, Mathias and Antoine, have had it with their life in Paris. When Mathias is fired from the bookshop where he works, he does not hesitate in heeding Antoine about a better life in London. What's more, Antoine already has a house in Frog Alley, the neighborhood where a lot of French live. Mathias' former wife Valentine will let him live in the house next door to his friend so he can supervise his daughter Emilie.Mathias buys an old fashioned book store catering to the French community. Antoine, an architect suggests they could combine both living areas of the two houses, where they would spend most of the time, but the upstairs will be only for each of the men and their son, or daughter. Since all it involves is knocking the dividing wall between the houses, Mathias goes into action before the actual permits arrive. Before all the work is completed, Antoine insists in drawing up a chart with 10 rules about how to cohabit the bigger space.Going to Emilie's school one day, Mathias, who is running late, meets a woman he has seen at his shop before. In the school yard there is a boy on a tree branch that is afraid to come down. Mathias goes to his rescue, but his fear of heights prevents him to do a good deed, only to be rescued by Audrey. Before Mathias realizes, he falls in love with the lovely Audrey. Not being able to take her to his house, they resort to meeting at a hotel. Frog Alley is dotted with an assortment of characters that find a common ground in their new adopted city. Antoine reasons this London quarter is like Paris, but without Parisians. When things are going great between Mathias and Audrey, his former wife shows up unexpectedly. Audrey who had a problem having been lied in another relationship casually comes upon the former couple and believes Mathias had lied. A pleasant sunny comedy by Lorraine Levy who adapted her brother's Marc novel with Phillippe Guez. Ms. Levy gave the production a glossy look as it almost feels like a Hollywood film, with a French point of view. The casting is what made the film even better. Vincent Lindon who is a welcome figure in any picture, plays a disarming Mathias. He is equally matched by Pascal Elbe, seen as Antoine. The excellent Virginie Ledoyen is Audrey. Florence Foresti, Mar Sodupe, and the great Bernadette Lafont are seen in supporting roles. Garance Le Guillermic, a charming young actress that made a splash in "L'Herisson" is on hand to play Emilie.

I had hoped to catch this movie during the Mar 2009 French Film festival in Australia... the synopsis at the time appealed but time was against us. So very pleased to see it get a commercial release in Australia and excellent fare for a late Sat afternoon session on a cold winter's day.Must admit despite glowing advertisement for the movie (how many of those have we all seen!) that my expectations were not very high. So I was very pleasantly surprised.I like the cut of lead actor Vincent Lindon who in real life is 50. Here he is supposed to be a single father in his 30s and moves to London to be with (a) his life long friend also a single father and his daughter who is about 9 and a lovely looking little girl. Lindon has an ageless appearance... some of his clothes almost look 1970s... dark blue and dark brown velvet jackets... with leather elbow patches for the latter. Red corduroy pants and brown shoes with black pants. Ah the French... I might take a lead from his fashion sense. Lindon's character is manly...a little like a coarser grade of sandpaper perhaps. His friend played by Pascal Elbe is more metro-sexual.. if he were sandpaper he'd be emery paper at worst and possible scented with Eau Sauvage.We first meet Virginie Ledoyen when she walks into Matthias' french bookshop in Frog Alley in Sth London (the actual address is Formosa St London for those keen on actual film locations). Here we men are given a wonderful long lingering look at Mme Ledoyen's neck which truly is a thing of great beauty. Later on we are given a similar very light tasteful touch as Matthias and her are in bed and he runs his finger across her breast, under her armpit, along her arm finally their two hands end up in quite a lovely clasp.So here we have a delightful ensemble cast in a small area of London with a great sense of warmth and community. It was quite a sad moment when the owner of the little French restaurant Chez Jeanne passed away. It made me sit and wonder whether more of us should be aiming to be a central/key part of a community.It's true as others have said here that age wise the younger of our 2 single fathers would have been a better age match for Audrey (Virginiee Ledoyen). They even seemed to have quite a lot in common when she comes to dinner to meet the families. I wonder how the film would have gone with the male leads swapping roles? But make no bones about it, Matthias and Audrey are sandpaper meets the French rose. He's on the front foot, his passion and "equipment" are plainly still in very good working order and despite lifes ups and downs he's still looking for love. Contrast this and Antoine the younger single father has given up on love, his manhood is having a rest period and some of his feminine side may have taken over as regards housekeeping and the like. Audrey.. she's gorgeous and some of the clinches and kisses with Matthias are very deep and passionate with just the right male/female balance.A delightful soundtrack part English part French completes this warm French treat. As the final titles ran My Lives, My Loves had the same warm finish to it as a small Canandian independent film from the 1990s whose name I cannot find.. the story of a group of amateur musicians who one summer take a contract to play at Catskills hotel.A very nice story of French family life and love here. And next time in London I look forward to going down to Formosa St Sth Kensington to see if some of the businesses actually exist. Perhaps a street view in Google Maps can give us a quick answer here!Postscript: If you search 4 Formosa St London on Google Maps for some strange reason Google Street view will open out the front of No 10 Formosa which is the Formosa Laundrette. If you click the arrow for Formosa St on the right hand side of your computer screen this will take you down to the street corner near the French Bookshop. I'd have to see the movie again.. there is a cafe at No 8 which may have been used as Chez Jeanne's with a different awning.

OK, I usually do not comment on movie here as I don't think I can bring so much interesting things to the debate, but here it's special... Obviously the 3 comments above mines are from non-native French speaker, maybe this explains that. I've only one thing to say about this movie: the actors are TERRIBLES! It's such a pain in the neck just to listen to them! And I really do not understand that, as they are usually (at least Ledoyen and Lindon) very good actors. So just forget this movie, unless you are a cinema school teacher, in which case you can show it to your student and debate over the fact that it is possible to take very good actors and make them play like untalented 7th grade kids. Unbelievable!

Okay, you're a producer and I'm pitching to you: There's these two guys, coming up to middle-age, each has kids and is separated/divorced. They decide to share a house/apartment. That's just about where you'd stop me because 1) I'm no Neil Simon and 2) Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau are not available. Pity you stopped me because if you hadn't I could have said that this is different because instead of what are admittedly great one-lines this scenario has warmth, charm and romance in any order you like. Vincent Lindon and Pascal Elbe (no slouch as a writer himself) are inch-perfect as the leads and Bernadette Lafont atones for all those new wavelet pretentious tosh with which she became associated and contributes a wonderful supporting role as the French Restaurant owner cum friend of the principals. In France currently there are three twenty/thirty -something actresses working regularly and this movie has the best of them which means it's not sluttish Sagnier (Ludo), twee Tautou (Audrey) but lovely Ledoyen (Ginny) and if at 31 she is a tad young for Lindon, now in his fiftieth year, I'm not complaining and he sure as hell isn't. With hindsight it may be the wrong time - two French students have just been horribly murdered here - to release a movie about the joy to be found for expat French in 'frog alley' (the area of South Kensington where they tend to pitch their tents) and maybe they should have thought twice about having a Bookshop specialising in French books for French people called The French Bookshop. There are, as it happens, two French Bookshops in South Kensington and both, not unnaturally have French titles - would you, for example, expect to see in Paris a shop called Libraire Anglais. Apart from minor cavils of this sort this is definitely out of the right bottle and is time well spent.