LA DISCRETE Movie Review

The Discreet

Antoine (Fabrice Luchini) is an arrogant writer who is clearly not the lothario he imagines himself to be. Outraged and wounded by his latest girlfriend dumping him, he huddles with his publisher to plan a revenge that will kill two birds with one stone. He will advertise for a young female typist whom he will seduce and abandon—all the while keeping a diary of the experience for publication. All bets are off when the ad is answered by the lovely and irresistibly intriguing Catherine (Judith Henry), who messes with Antoine's mind in ways even he never dreamed of. La Discrete looks at first like it's going to be a simple-minded tale of a male chauvinist's come-uppance, but writer/director Christian Vincent is interested in much more. Both of these people pay a price for their manipulation, and the viewer is drawn into a relationship that's far more touching and complex than we bargained for. This picture never made much of a splash on the American art house circuit, possibly because of its refusal to draw easy conclusions. Had it caught on, it might have made Judith Henry the star she deserves to be; watching her Catherine try to calm down the steaming Antoine by repeating his name—beckoning him to bed—is one of the most seductive and charming scenes in any French film of the '90s. It's a notable directorial debut.

NEXT STOP … Diary of a Seducer, Rendezvous in Paris, The Disenchanted

1990 95m/C FR Fabrice Luchini, Judith Henry, Maurice Garrel, Marie Bunel, Francois Toumarkine; D: Christian Vincent; W: Jean-Pierre Ronssin, Christian Vincent; M: lay Gottlieb. Cesar Awards '91: Best Writing. VHS NYF, FCT