You Are So Beautiful

Aymé farms in the provinces. His wife has just died and he is alone on the land. He does not grieve; to him the matter is practical, he needs someone to work the farm. He goes to a marriage agency. The agency suggests Romania. He goes, is shown row after row of women and chooses Elena. She comes to France. Aymé treats her as labour, and Elena is making her own calculation. Isabelle Mergault directs. Michel Blanc plays Aymé and Medeea Marinescu plays Elena. It is her first film and won the César for best first feature in France, as well as doing large business. It is a romantic comedy on economic ground. Marriage here is built not as a matter of feeling but as an arrangement in which both sides are covering a lack, and the film does not hide it. Michel Blanc does not play the character for sympathy; the man is coarse, mean and barely speaks. The comedy comes out of that silence. Elena is not built as a victim; she makes her own decisions and it is she who changes the direction of the narrative. Its limit is the ending; the narrative softens toward the close and moves away from the hard realism of the start. Who it is for: viewers who like French provincial comedy and unusual love stories. Who it is not for: the tone of the first half will feel harsh to some, the ending ties up easily, and the picture of Romania is thin.