KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: 3/5
The latest film by a veteran of French comedy is a lot smarter than it looks, which is not necessarily a good thing.
Blier's lithe and unpredictable comedies, including Trop Belle Pour Toi, were festival fixtures of the 80s but have not been seen here
much since. In How Much Do You Love Me? he is in a provocative and reflective mood, evaluating the debased currency of love.
The ambiguity of the "how much" in the title is obvious from the opening scene in which the lugubrious Francois (Campan) is window-shopping in the famed Pigalle district of Paris, where the hookers display their wares to the passing traffic.
He selects the lustrous Daniela (Bellucci) and tells her he's just won a fortune in the lottery. "I accept," she says, before he's even made her his offer of €100,000 a month until the money's gone, to come and live with him.
But the plan runs into a few roadblocks: Francois has a dicky ticker and his doctor (Darroussin) is unhappy about the prospect of constant ... excitement. And Daniela has a boyfriend, Charly (Depardieu, in fine form), a gangster who is unhappy about the arrangement. "Life isn't self-service," he explains to Francois, as he suggests the payment of damages for the "affection deficit".
Blier, who gives himself a telling cameo as one of the brothel's clients in the opening scene, is plainly suggesting that the movies - and by extension himself - are implicated in the commodification of sex. But the film and the film-maker are both fatally hamstrung by the casting of Bellucci.
The Italian import is the embodiment of European eye candy and Blier is so bewitched by her looks that he barely controls the camera-shake. His lighting shows the eye of a strip-club entrepreneur and the soundtrack (Bellini, Puccini, Verdi) puts sensual pleasure ahead of satirical bite. All Darroussin's scenes are terrific and there's a wonderful scrap between Daniela and her neighbour (Rahouadj), who reckons Daniela is too noisy not to be faking it. But for all its good intentions, it's a film that loses focus. It wants to be one thing, but can't help being another.
Cast: Monica Bellucci, Bernard Campan, Gerard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Farida Rahouadj
Director: Bertrand Blier
Running time: 95 mins
Rating: M
Screening: Academy
Verdict: A fitfully very funny French sex comedy that tries but fails to be a sly commentary on sex comedies
* Note: This film does not open in cinemas until May 3.