Une affaire qui roule (2003) Directed by Eric Veniard
Comedy
aka: A Great Little Business
Film Review
Having made his mark as a screenwriter, on
Jacques Maillot's Nos vies heureuses (1999) and
Renaud Cohen's Quand on sera grand (2000),
Eric Veniard made a respectable feature debut with this amiable comedy (previously, in 1997,
he had made a medium-length film entitled Thérapie russe).
For the most part, it's a two-handed piece in which the lead actors
Clovis Cornillac and Denis Podalydès play to their strengths,
making an effective chalk-and-cheese double act that is a joy to watch.
Veniard's talents are more obviously visible on the screenwriting front,
although he shows some promise as director and makes the most of
the comic situations that he and his writing so deftly managed to set up.
Whilst the plot is somewhat lacking in originality and is not
immune from some pretty blatant stereotyping (all airline stewards are gay apparently),
the main characters are convincingly drawn and are given sufficient focus for
the film to hold our attention.
Une affaire qui roule is by no means a breathtakingly original comedy
but it has charm and manages to be a moderately enjoyable divertissement.
Eric Veniard would subsequently co-author
the lesbian-themed drama Je te mangerais (2009) and
Jacques Maillot's highly regarded thriller Les Liens du sang (2008).
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Film Synopsis
Frustrated by his job as a chef in a mundane restaurant, Jean-Jacques hands in his apron
and sets about trying to find the money he needs to open his own high-class eatery.
Despite the encouragement of well-meaning friends, Jean-Jacques' efforts to find
the necessary cash prove futile, so he decides to attend a class on how to start a new
business, which is run by Claude. The latter also hates his job and gives it up
so that he can start writing his first novel. Like Jean-Jacques, Claude has difficulty
getting his new venture off the ground...
Continental Films, quality cinema under the Nazi Occupation
At the time of the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the German-run company Continental produced some of the finest films made in France in the 1940s.
American film comedy had its heyday in the 1920s and '30s, but it remains an important genre and has given American cinema some of its enduring classics.