Centered on his performing profession and theater, Daniel Cohen returns to the cinema eight years later from ‘The chef, the household recipe’, adapting exactly one of his personal theater items: ‘Wholesome envy’. A title that, in Spanish, reveals the contradiction of placing each phrases collectively and whose unique title in French (‘Le bonheur des uns …’) made reference to the well-known saying ‘One’s luck is the misfortune of others’. A really direct description of this cinematographic wager that manages to be an ironic and important look in direction of bourgeois life by these small particulars that delve into what few wish to take a look at: mediocrity itself.
Regardless of being of theatrical origin, the reality is that Cohen, who adapts his personal work in the belief and in the script -in this part along with Olivier Dazat-, he is aware of fully switch his work to the large display, taking these apparently superfluous conversations to totally different settings. Already, from the start of the movie, a formidable letter of introduction is noticed, in the shape of a dinner of 4 lifelong mates whose indecision when taking dessert subtly marks the longer term of every of the characters.
And is that all 4 fantastically symbolize in the present day’s portrait of the middle-aged Parisian upper-middle class, in which there’s a lot of look, in which friendships are primarily based on supporting their very own miseries on the expense of others and that, when somebody stands out, is when the seams of relationships start to be seen, each friendships and conjugal . It’s attention-grabbing how Cohen approaches the plot in Léa, apparently the weakest hyperlink in the group, who goes from being a clerk in a clothes retailer to being a best-selling author.
Ironic mental comedy with a chic performing train
Though the girl assures that she at all times felt comfortable each as a gross sales clerk and as a author, it’s its success which causes not solely envy to leap, but in addition the grudges saved from friendships for years, from inferiority complexes of {couples} that present how machismo continues to mark relationships and, above all, how envy can’t be wholesome. And Cohen and Dazat’s script captures it very nicely in every of the three remaining mates. From the obvious lifelong finest pal, Karine, who sees her dominating wake overshadowed; passing by the husband of the author, Marc, whose mediocrity is uncovered in a tremendously acid approach, with out forgetting the husband of the very best pal, Francis, maybe probably the most sincere of your entire movie.
And that duel to 4, Cohen configures a chic bourgeois comedy, the type that reminds probably the most rogue Olivier AssayasIt’s unimaginable to not bear in mind the publishing world of ‘Double lives’, in addition to that totally different female gaze in relation to Léa, which evokes the cinema of Justine Triet. Nonetheless, this might not have come to fruition had been it not for his performing quartet: Vincent Cassel, Bérénice Bejo, Florence Foresti and François Damiens. Cassel continues to maneuver away from these roles for which he turned identified, this time displaying his most infuriating aspect; Bejo continues to shock along with his comedian aspect and the tandem couldn’t be higher accompanied than by two nice French humorists akin to Foresti and Damiens.
‘Wholesome envy’ brings to mild what’s behind this contradictory expression, which makes it clear that jealousy is just not wholesome in any respect. A pleasant train in mental irony below the veneer of acid parlor comedy of which French cinema has identified set up itself as a benchmark.
Grade: 8
One of the best: The second of selecting the dessert, fantastically defines the film.
Worst: It’s one of these comedies that these searching for one thing simple or a extra authorial wager is not going to like.
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