Agnès Jaoui's Le Goût des autres | The Taste of Others (2000)

Le Goût des autres is Agnès Jaoui's first film, written by her and her partner Jean-Pierre Bacri, who died at the age of 69 last week. There is no sex, virtually no violence, no high dramatic scenes, the movie can only with difficulty be called a comedy, and yet this film is constantly engrossing.

Jean-Jacques Castella (Bacri) is the successful owner of a canning(?) factory in Rouen. He is seemingly permanently bad-tempered and highly uncultured (let's call him almost tasteless), but wealthy. He lives with his wife Angélique (Christiane Millet), a former interior designer who has turned their home into a kitschy palace full of furniture with flowery designs: it's looks like hell to live in.

Is it surprising that Jean-Jacques looks for an escape route, even if he's not aware of it? Or even that his escape route could come from his temporary English teacher Clara Devaux (Anne Alvaro)? He has an important Iranian contract to fulfill, and it might be a good idea if he learns at least a little English to please his potential buyers, even if he's relying on his far better educated second-in-command Weber (Xavier de Guillbon) to spare him the chore of doing the real business. So along comes Clara Devaux (Anne Alvaro) to teach him, although she's swiftly dismissed by the macho Jean-Jacques.

However, much to Jean-Jacques's disgust (and much in life is to his disgust), that evening he and his wife have agreed to see Racine's Bérénice at the theatre, where Angélique's niece is playing a minor role. And who should be playing the main role? Clara of course. And from whining 'Putain !' about having to see the performance, from at the beginning being horrified that the play is in verse (well, we knew Jean-Jacques was uncultured), he's transfixed — smitten is a more exact word — by Clara's performance.

So transfixed that he'll see the play again, renew English lessons with Clara, and visit her in her dressing room. He tries to get involved with the people who mix with her, but they just make fun of his lack of culture: they claim that Ibsen and Strindberg are comic playwrights! But, little by little, Jean-Jacques is discovering culture and might stike a hit with Clara: after all, he's left his tiresome wife and perhaps grown to love Hedda Gabler.

The question of the barmaid and cannabis dealer Manie (Agnès Jaoui), with her relationship with Jean-Jacques's chauffeur Bruno (Alain chabet) and bodyguard Franck (Gérard Lanvin), is a complicated subplot I won't go into. Fascinating film.