Friday, November 02, 2012

Comme un chef / The Chef


Daniel Cohen: Comme un chef / The Chef (FR/ES 2012) with Jean Reno (Alexandre Lagarde), Michaël Youn (Jacky Bonnot). The Finnish tagline plays with the proverb "too many cooks spoil the soup".

Le Chef - rakkaudesta ruokaan / Le Chef. 
    FR/ES © 2012 Gaumont / TF1 Films / A Contracorriente Films. P: Sidonie Dumas. D+SC: Daniel Cohen. DP: Robert Fraisse - camera: Arri Alexa Plus. PD: Hugues Tissandier. Cost: Emmanuelle Youchnovski. SFX: Guy Monbillard. VFX: Nicolas Borens. M: Nicola Piovani. S: Rym Debbarh-Mounir. ED: Géraldine Rétif. 
    C: Jean Reno (Alexandre Lagarde), Michaël Youn (Jacky Bonnot), Raphaëlle Agogué (Béatrice), Julien Boisselier (Stanislas Matter), Salomé Stévenin (Amandine), Serge Larivière (Titi), Issa Doumbia (Moussa), Bun-hay Mean (Chang), Pierre Vernier (Paul Matter), Santiago Segura (Juan), Geneviève Casile (Béatrice's mother), André Penvern (Béatrice's father), Rebecca Miquel (Carole). - Virgile Bramly, Élodie Hesme (restaurant critics).
    85 min. 
    Released by Atlantic Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila / Kajsa Wickström. 
    2K DCP viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, 2 Nov 2012 (day of Finnish premiere).

Official synopsis: "Jacky Bonnot, 32 ans, amateur de grande cuisine, au talent certain, rêve de succès et de grand restaurant. La situation financière de son couple le contraint cependant d’accepter des petits boulots de cuistot qu’il n’arrive pas à conserver. Jusqu’au jour où il croise le chemin d’Alexandre Lagarde, grand chef étoilé dont la situation confortable est mise en danger par le groupe financier propriétaire de ses restaurants..."

AA: Feelgood entertainment: a well-made comedy with sharp dialogue, excellent performances and brilliant timing. The clash is between the celebrity chef Alexandre Lagarde (Jean Reno) and the never-heard Jacky Bonnot who does have real talent in la grande cuisine. 

The famous Lagarde restaurant is in danger of losing one of its stars which would mean that Lagarde, himself, would be fired. On the day of the restaurant trial Lagarde stays out and attends his daughter's thesis defense trial, instead. Jacky Bonnot is left to take care of everything, and the wily owner who wants to oust Lagarde has arranged that the kitchen is empty. The situation is saved with an inspired interpretation of molecular cuisine.

The actors relish their interpretations of the star chef and the wannabe chef with bigger-than-life egos.

The visual quality of the presentation was good.

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