Toute première fois (2015)
Directed by Maxime Govare, Noémie Saglio

Film Review

Toute premiere fois (a.k.a. I Kissed a Girl) is the first feature from directors Noémie Saglio and Maxime Govare, the latest in a depressingly long line of  'coming out' comedies in which, this time, the main character is a gay man who wakes up one morning to discover he fancies the opposite sex.  It's a pretty lame pretext but it's basically all the film has as it treads an all too predictable path in a sub-genre that has already been mined to death.  The film's release is timely, however, as gay marriage only became legal in France in May 2013, and it remains a highly contentious topic.

On the plus side, the film boasts a respectable cast headed by Pio Marmaï and Lannick Gautry, who previously appeared together in Rémi Bezançon's Un heureux événement (2011).  Marmaï is a likeable and talented performer, although he appears more at home in drama than comedy, evidenced by some of his comic turns in Saglio and Govare's film which deliver more pain than mirth, notably an awful striptease-dance sequence.  The performances could have been better if the film's authors had put more effort into the script instead of lazily recycling old ideas.  With scarcely a single original idea in sight, Toute premiere fois very quickly outstays its welcome.

Film Synopsis

34-year-old Jérémie is about to get married to his long-term boy friend Antoine when Eros throws a banana skin in his path.  Waking up one day, he finds himself in bed with a woman - a ravishingly beautiful Swede named Adna.  How is this possible?  Jérémie is at a complete loss to account for his attraction for Adna, and yet he finds her sufficiently desirable to wonder whether he should cancel his marriage plans.  To straighten matters out, he consults his friend and colleague Charles, who has the bright idea of hiring Adna to work in their office.  It isn't long before Antoine begins to suspect that something may be up...