..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

The Girl from Monaco
Directed by Anne Fontaine

Another woman director who’s very sharp at observing, and making dark drama, of male moods, foibles and eccentricities is French actress-writer-director Anne Fontaine (Nathalie). And she’s very good at delineating modern femme fatales as well, as she definitely shows in The Girl from Monaco.
      
In Fontaine’s  catchy, engrossing contemporary neo-noir, a famous, repressed and rather prissy bourgeois defense lawyer, Bertrand Beauvois (Fabrice Luchini), takes a case in Monaco, defending an  enigmatic murder trial defendant, Mme. Edith Lasalle (Stephane Audran, the icy belle of many a Claude Chabrol thriller).
        
For Bertrand, the case may be a snap, but life in Monaco -- especially life in the fast lane -- definitely causes problems: He and his preternaturally calm, sturdy, expert bodyguard Christophe (Roschdy Zem) are thrown into deeper and deeper mess-ups and mixes by  a nymphomaniac TV weathergirl and blonde, leggy femme fatale Audrey Varella (the very funny and enticing Louise Bourgion), who crashes into his life, pulls in a lot of sleazy, high-life compadres and seems destined to wreck the counselor -- despite Christophe‘s best efforts to protect him.
     
I liked Girl for about 90% of the way. But … It starts very well and gets you on the hook fast, especially when the cool Christophe and red-hot Audrey are dueling emotionally over the brainy yet susceptible celeb twit Bertrand (played, as only can play this type, by Luchini, whom we first met in Eric Rohmer’s classic Claire’s Knee). Despite its Monaco setting, the movie is not especially visually striking or attractive. But the actors are mostly super-fine and the show is engrossing, until the bizarre surprise ending, which I thought was ridiculous.

 
-by Michael Wilmington

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