Since "Versailles Rive Gauche" (1992), the Podalydès brothers rank among the darlings of the French press and critic specialized in cinema. This movie "Dieu seul me voit" (1998) confirms it. It achieved a huge success more critic than commercial and it won the Oscar for the Best First Work in France in 1999. I watched it recently and I thought it wasn't bad.
It's obvious that the Podalydès brothers have got a certain talent as a director (Bruno) and as an actor (Denis). Both have concocted a light and subtle movie which isn't however devoid of weaknesses. To sum up this film, someone told me this sentence: "a recording engineer drowned in his loving problems". It can be checked in one sequence, at the end of the film, when Albert (Denis Podalydès) is in front of the Versailles castle after the demonstration with all the women he charmed. Otherwise, I don't think the sentence suits well to the opus. I would have chosen "a recording engineer hesitating between several loving conquests". Moreover, Albert mainly evokes a loving Candide.
Then, "Dieu seul me voit" is supposed to be a comedy. It's rather true. There are, actually two kinds of comic. Firstly, a comic that emanates from the dialogs and secondly, situation comedy. Using these two devices, Bruno Podalydès, let's admit it doesn't always hit the bull's eye but when he succeeds in it, it's a delightful result.
But I also thought that most of the sequences were of varying quality: if the ones that take place in Toulouse turn out to be particularly successful, others are badly mastered: when Albert's having dinner with Anna in the "Klow restaurant".
At the end, the whole gives a nice movie even imperfect.
A remark: the Podalydès brothers are big fans of Tintin and "Dieu seul me voit" contains three nods at the famous reporter: - in Albert's flat, there's a little copy of the red and white rocket. - when Albert eats out with Anna, this is the "Klow restaurant" and the waiter's got the same aspect as the one in the Tintin's album: "King Ottokar's sceptre". - at last when Albert is at the advance poll, he wears nearly the same clothes as Tintin: a white shirt and a blue sweat shirt.
