HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT
Directed by: Laetitia Colombani.
Produced by: Domininque Brunner & Charles Gassot.
Written by: Colombani & Caroline Thivel.
Director of Photography: Pierre Aïm.
Edited by: Véronique Parnet.
Music by: Jérôme Coullet.
Released by: Columbia/Tristar.
Country of Origin: France. 92 min. Not Rated.
With: Audrey Tautou & Samuel Le Bihan.
DVD Features: Widescreen. English Subtitles. Trailers.

Fresh from starring in Amélie, Audrey Tautou appears in this taut psychological French thriller as Angélique, a charming art student whose imagination gets ahead of her. The film begins with her buying a single rose for the man of her dreams, cardiologist Loïc (Le Bihan). After the clerk tells her that there's a minimum for delivery, she flirtatiously pleads that the rose is for their one-month anniversary. Sure enough, she gets her way. Although Angélique knows Loïc is married, she dismisses warnings from friends that he won't leave his wife. But when he doesn't show at the airport for a trip to Italy, she loses hope. In this briskly paced, carefully plotted film, context is everything. The first half is Angélique's side of the story, the second features Loïc's, becoming a mix of Fatal Attraction and The Wrong Man. Although quite a departure from Amélie, the casting of Tautou is not a stunt. With her winning smile and wide-eyed hopefulness, resistance is futile, and this is essential to the story. Wisely, director/writer Colombani has left many of Angélique's action off screen and to our imagination. Much better than The Cradle Will Rock and SWF, and without the superfluous shock effects, this is like an engrossing late-night TV movie. KT
April 24, 2003