L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri (2015)
Directed by Ivan Calbérac

Film Review

For his fourth feature for the cinema, director Ivan Calbérac adapted his moderately successful stage play L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri, having spent most of the last half decade working primarily for French television.  Calbérac's directing career got off to a flying start in 2002 with Irène, which was nominated for a César, but seems to have languished in recent years, and his latest film, a lacklustre comedy, looks unlikely to reverse this trend.  Recently, there has been a spate of stage-to-screen transpositions in French cinema - some successful: Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte's Le Prénom (2012); others less so: Richard Berry's Nos femmes (2015).  Calbérac's tepid offering definitely belongs to the latter category.

On the plus side, L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri boasts a talented cast headed by veteran performer Claude Brasseur, still a force to be reckoned with as he stands on the threshold of his ninth decade.  Brasseur's previous comedy outings includes such French hits as Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (1976) and Camping (2006), although he is better known as a dramatic actor, with an impressive list of film credits that stretch all the way back to the mid-1950s.  Placed opposite this well-worn cinematic monolith is newcomer Noémie Schmidt, a fresh faced talent making a promising screen debut and looking improbably at ease alongside her illustrious co-star.  It was a brave decision to cast two actors opposite one another who are at the extreme ends of their careers, but it is one of the factors that works in the film's favour, both actors bringing a similar childishness (the pettiness of old age versus the inexperience of youth) to their portrayals.

As engaging as the two leads are, both are pretty well eclipsed by Guillaume de Tonquedec, who steals the film as the dull-as-ditchwater accountant who ends up going out of his way to make himself attractive to a woman half his age - this essentially involves him swapping his immaculately pressed suits for trendy adolescent garb and learning how to text (badly).  Having already made an impact in Le Prénom and the popular television series Fais pas ci, fais pas ça, de Tonquedec is shaping up to be big star, albeit somewhat belatedly.  Welcome as her presence is, Frédérique Bel is wasted in a thankless role that is more a crude plot device than a believable character.

You can see why L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri worked well on the stage but on screen it falls mostly flat, the humour feels strained throughout and for the most part the film struggles to extort more than an indulgent smile from its spectator.  The characters are unsubtle caricatures that have absolutely no depth to them - what you see is what you get.  As a result, the story pans out exactly as you expect it to, with an ending that is completely predictable, almost guaranteed to leave you groaning with disappointment.  The film is tolerably entertaining up until the point when it starts to get preachy, churning out well-worn platitudes of the 'Live life for the present' and 'It's later than you think' ilk like there was no tomorrow.  Despite some creditable performances, Ivan Calbérac's fourth feature struggles to lift itself above the mundane and ultimately it ends up like a collapsed soufflé.

Film Synopsis

Monsieur Henri is a man in his late seventies who is struggling to cope with living by himself in his large Parisian apartment.  The archetypal grumpy old man, he is in no hurry to give up his independence so he finally agrees to his son Paul's proposition of renting out one of his rooms.  The prospective tenant turns out to be a young student, Constance, who is desperate to find accommodation, after escaping from her bossy father.  Monsieur Henri appears to be completely impervious to the young woman's charms but immediately sees how she may be of use to him.  He offers the student a rent-free stay in his appartment for three months providing she helps him to break up his son's marriage to Valérie, the daughter-in-law he has always detested.  Constance has no option but to agree and she has no difficulty turning Paul's head...