Mon Inconnue: a true French romantic comedy [critique]

Hugo Gélin has fun with codes and flirts with the fantastic.

My Unknown will return this evening on Cstar, and First advises you. Here is our long review of the film, when we discovered it at the beginning of 2019 at the Alpe d'Huez comedy festival.

At the end of the film, Olivia, the character of Joséphine Japy, famous concert artist, plays Chopin's impromptu fantasy. In reality, it must be Katia Buniatishvili, the Georgian lioness: the musician appears for a short moment in the film and it is hard to imagine the actress being able to really play this piece which resembles the east face of Cerro Torre or a descent of the Saarenne on a single ski – that's another debate. Let's start again. At the end of the film Olivia plays Chopin's impromptu fantasy. Like most of his works, this piece is a piece of crazy romanticism, poetry and lyricism. Placed at this moment in the film, shot as the climax of the story, the piece sums up the filmmaker's crazy project well. My Unknown wants to be a total romantic comedy with breath.

How Hugo Gélin went from My Unknown to Lupine thanks to Tomorrow Everything Begins [exclu]

It is. But after a sluggish start. It all starts with a crazy image. Paris under the snow. The Saint-Louis bridge is blown up and lies in pieces on a frozen Seine. The camera descends onto the docks and rushes into a warehouse where a man is running, dressed in leather, pursued by soldiers. Explosion, shots… end of the postapo segment and here we are in a Parisian high school. François Civil And Benjamin Lavernhe moumoutés, (poorly) disguised as seventeen-year-olds, try to pass the baccalaureate. Raphaël fan of SF (François Civil) writes a book (we will understand that it is the story of the beginning). One evening he hears piano notes in his high school and discovers Olivia alone in a room. It's love at first sight. The pre-credits gets carried away and recounts their ten years of exclusive and passionate love (marriage, success for him). Raphaël has become an arrogant, well-dressed and overconfident writer. Olivia is a piano teacher. Busy with his many activities, he neglects it a little. And one evening, it's one argument too many. When Raphaël wakes up the next morning, we quickly understand (and before him) that he has passed into another universe. He's living the life he should have had if he'd never met Olivia. To return to his world, he will have to seduce her again.

Gélin's horizon is therefore the pure romantic comedy, an impossible love story which must triumph despite everything: the boy must win back the girl he loves. The pattern is classic, worn out even, but Gélin and his screenwriters twist it with this clever idea of ​​uchrony. We know! This is not the first time that romcom and SF have teamed up and Gélin is clearly following in the footsteps ofA day without endbut above all It Was About Time of Richard Curtis (time travel being replaced here by uchrony) or beauty Somewhere in timeless melodious, less desperate. Because My Unknown is a true romantic comedy, funny, fiery when necessary and nostalgic (but not too much) when necessary.

With a central question: what would life be like if you hadn't met your great childhood love? Hugo Gélin skillfully plays on his SF premise and throws his yuppie writer into a new, less sexy dimension. Goodbye to the rooftop and cocktails at the publisher's, hello to college rooms and seedy ping pong tournaments. Because Raphaël will have to come to terms with his new desynchronized condition, his new “me” in short (he was a literary superstar, he is a single literature teacher). He certainly has a little head start on destiny, but it regularly puts obstacles in his way…

It's this beautiful pop, romantic idea, which, thanks to solid production, gives the film the appearance of an instant classic. Apart from the prologue, the film is beautiful, attempts cinema ideas (the delicate zoom during the concert) and accompanies the delusions of its characters until the end.

But Gélin can above all rely on wonderful and cute actors. François Civil is a bomb: at ease in moments of frank nonsense as well as in more tragic moments. Facing him, Joséphine Japy is perfect in the role of Olivia, beautiful, surly, shy and sunny. As for Benjamin Lavernhe, he composes an irresistible sidekick that is by turns blundering and moving, handsome and subtle, even though his role was not necessarily the easiest to play – he constantly avoids the pitfalls of caricature. It's strong, very strong.

My Unknownis a beautiful romantic comedy, the likes of which no one dares to make anymore, a beautiful lyrical, romantic and lively love story. Who never tries to be virtuoso and prefers to play with emotions. Precisely how Chopin should be played. The impromptu fantasy was a good idea.

Mon Inconnue – François Civil: “On the film, I wear Christian Clavier’s wig for Jacquouille”