The Valet January 18, 2008

FLICS presents The Valet

Dir: Francis Veber, France, 2006, 85 min, PG-13

French titled "La Doublure", marks the return of one of Francis Veber’s most popular characters, the always-in-earnest if somewhat clueless François Pignon, a personage so durable he has been played by four different actors over the years. This film lets us know at once that Pignon's job this time around is parking cars at a fancy Parisian restaurant. Pignon dreams of marrying his childhood sweetheart Emilie. But, immersed in the financial difficulties of running her own bookstore, she has no time to think of Pignon as anything but a brother. Soulless billionaire Pierre Levasseur has romantic problems of his own. Because his icy wife Christine is a major stockholder in his company, he lives in fear that she will discover his relationship with the leonine Elena, who just happens to be the world’s highest-paid supermodel. As always happens in Veber films, Pierre's worst nightmare comes to pass. A paparazzo grabs a shot of the mogul and his mistress together and, confronted by his wife, Pierre tries a desperate ploy. Elena is not with him, he tells a dubious Christine, she is with Pignon who, in reality, was simply walking by and is in the picture by accident. "The Valet" continues the tradition of the classic French farce.

In French with English subtitles

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