Before being a stingy and egocentric family father in "Liberté-Oléron" (2001), before being a young engineer tangled in his love life in "Dieu Seul me Voit" (1998), Denis POdalydès already shone in this medium-length film directed by his brother Bruno Podalydès like all the mentioned movies. As its title indicates, the town of Versailles constitutes the backdrop of the plot and Denis Podalydès acts a timid young man who invited Claire in his flat as big as a pocket handkerchief. He prepares himself so that the evening will end in a tender conclusion. Unfortunately, an unforeseen detail and the burdensome intrusion of his neighbors and friends will shatter his evening and spoil the pleasure he would have liked to take with his girlfriend.
Rarely has a comedy contained so much laughter in a so restrained lapse of time and a so cramped place. The Podalydès brothers (Denis in front of the camera, Bruno behind it) teamed up to produce a little treasure. Indisputably, it is a reliable model of French comedy made with little means but with much brilliance and panache. The one single gag of the film finds itself in the beginning of the work. It could have been fallen in the bad taste but it's not in the habits of Bruno Podalydès to shot this kind of thing. He prefers to film it with a sense of decency and reserve. However, this gag will launch a series of unpredictable sudden new developments galore which will follow on from each other through a mad and implacable logic.
It's not all. On a screenplay set with clockwork precision, Bruno Podalydès has fun of the most well-worn stereotypes and has the capacity to make dense a trite situation. And if this situation may appear as disagreeable for poor Arnaud, he has fun of it and makes the viewer laugh at it. And where Podalydès is very good at is to turn the possible weaknesses of his work into strengths. Indeed, some jerry-built sequences will be followed by masterful comical sudden new developments. For example, in the beginning Claire wants to go to the toilets but the toilet flush doesn't work and Arnaud says that his brother is in the toilets. Then, while Claire's back is turned, he calls his brother to rescue him and explain him the situation. As for the sequel, go and see for yourself.
But Bruno Podalydès has more than one string to his bow. He also achieves the incredible feat to boost the machine again when it seems to be out of breath (see the sequence with the arrival of the musicians).
"Versailles Rive Gauche" includes virtually all the seeds the Podalydès brothers will use in their subsequent works. Apart their own comical approach (a minimum of gags for a maximum of sudden new developments, to gently laugh at an annoying situation for a character), they will hire the same actors in often little but always noteworthy roles. One doesn't change a winning team with comedians like Philippe Uchan or Michel Vuillermoz who seem here to take a great pleasure to act their respective roles. And Podalydès's opus is also filled with nods and allusions to Tintin, one of the brothers' icons.
If you have the chance to watch this jewel and it's not easy given it isn't very known among the French mainstream, don't think twice. And if you can , try to watch the other works I mentioned.
