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Too Beautiful for You

Released 1990
Runtime 92
Category Drama
Language French
Director Bertrand Blier

What it’s about

Bernard (Depardieu) has it all: a successful car dealership, nice apartment, two adorable kids, and a devoted wife (Bouquet) so ethereally beautiful, all of his friends can barely hide their admiration and envy. Still, his world is turned upside down by new secretary Colette (Balasko), a woman of completely average looks and personality who (inexplicably) exerts a passionate hold on him. As Bernard struggles to choose between the seeming perfection of his existence with Florence and the all-too-tangible possibilities of a new life with Colette, the two very different women in his life will also be forced to confront the nature of happiness and desire.

Why we love it

“Too Beautiful” takes an almost cliché love triangle — the man, his drab wife, and his gorgeous secretary — and turns it on its head by making the wife gorgeous and the secretary drab, thus offering a fresh and unexpected take on the eternal mysteries of love, desire, and attraction. Director Blier also heightens the fun by being structurally inventive, playing with time and folding direct-address and fantasy sequences seamlessly into the narrative. In this heady whirlwind of conflicted emotions and relationship angst, the gruff yet endearing Depardieu demonstrates yet again why he has been a decades-long fixture of French cinema, delivering another flawed but loveable Everyman to anchor this all “Too Beautiful” film.

Gerard Depardieu, Josiane Balasko, Carole Bouquet Bertrand Blier

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