Lucas Belvaux is clearly not particular where his plots come from nor has he any desire to attempt originality so this film may only be judged on the performances. It would take far too much time and use up far too much space to name-check all the films dealing with relationships across social and/or intellectual divides so I'll restrict myself to just two, Marion Vernoux's outstanding Rien a faire in which ill-educated housewife Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and recently redundant business executive Patrick Dell'Isola meet at a job centre and embark on a relationship despite both being married, and, much closer to home, Claude Goretta's La Dentelliere in which Isabelle Huppert, works in a hairdressing salon and meets student Yves Benyton. Here Emilie Dequenne is the hairdresser who meets Philosopher and Lecturer Loic Corbery who, in the course of their relationship, gives her books to read not least Doesteovsky's The Idiot, which might be attempting to tell her something. Leaving the silver screen behind for a moment we can find here echoes of both Scott Fitzgerald who provided his lover Sheila Graham with a reading list and Artie Shaw who did the same for one of his wives, Ava Gardner. Should we seek a counterpart for the emotionally cold Corbery we need look no further than Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver in which Daniel Auteuils' violin maker/restorer was very much on a par with Manu Beart's classical musician socially but light years away in terms of emotional warmth. In spite of all this 'borrowing' Lucas Belvaux is almost sure to reap the rewards of Emily Dequennes brilliant performance with the Comedy Francaise's Corberry only a whisker behind. Brownie points too for setting the whole thing in unfashionable Arras where the bring the sidewalks in at 4 p.m. Performance-led and all the better for it this is a must-see.
Review of Pas son genre
