Mauvaise passe

I wasn't really impressed by Mauvaise Passe. I thought the movie was predictable and boring. Really nothing special to be thrilled about. The story is what it is, a bit hard to believe, that's for sure. I mean what would a French speaking person search in London where 99,9% of the population can't speak a word of French? And him, he finds immediately a new job, plus another job as gigolo while he is middle aged, isn't that of a great looking guy and he doesn't speak English himself. It's all too far teched for me. I'm not going to debate about the rest of the story, let's just say that all the stereotypes about gigolo's passes the revue. It's just an average movie.

A French academic, in a mid life crisis, comes to London to write a book but - through an accident of fate - starts earning money as a part-time male escort.

A film that is well constructed (clear-cut beginning, middle and end) and gives a fair impression of London's famous Soho area. Daniel Auteuil (Pierre)also gives a sense of sexual innocence that his 40 years on earth would surely have wiped out if he was for real!

Entertaining as it is, the whole thing comes across as being too easy and pat (even a far-too-young-for-him prostitute wants his sex). Indeed everyone seems eager to help our newly arrived hero, who tries to keep in touch with his former life in Paris by way of fractured phone conversation. Here we have pure broken marriage cliché and is the weakest part of the movie.

The sex is tasteful and erotic, but a lot of his clients are too good looking to be true and you would have to be very good at this style of work to afford a docklands apartment. There is also a little bit of drug taking and drug dealing which is seen as background detail and not moralised over.

Despite its London base (it is Brit/French production) this film is far more French than it is British. Whether you find this a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. I find it a good thing, although it could do with being a bit less poefaced and either cutting out his life-back-home or explaining what went wrong with it in detail.

Worth your time if you want a pleasant character study of a man adjusting to a new life style rather than the sex romp the poster might be suggesting.

Mauvaise Passe (The Escort) is a very watchable French made movie that has the typical feel of a continental film but with a British setting and mainly British cast which for me makes an intriging movie that is unlike anything that i have seen in a long while. This is a film about a middle aged french man who after a family crisis travels on the spur of the moment to London only to get caught up in the male prostitution business and eventually drugs. The acting from Daniel Auteuil and Stuart Townsend is top draw and the story is strong enough to have you interested throughout the film. The only flaws in the film are that it is hard to believe that the man we see at the start of the film , who lacked confidance , could go on to become an escort and there is also a scene where we see him at a posh party and a drunk toff starts talking and the acting in that scene is appalling from the socialite. Dont let that put you what is a very good film. 8 out of 10.

Daniel Auteil plays a French man, Pierre, who absconds from his family in Paris to the bright lights of London in order to write a book. One day he is beaten up in the street by the bouncer of a strip joint and Tom ,a young male escort, comes to his aid. The two become mates and Tom encourages Pierre to enter the world of male escorting.

Not a bad film but not incredibly good either. However an interesting peek into a fictional world of male escorting in London where good money is to be made by sleeping with mostly attractive women. Does not sound bad maybe I should give it a go, if it is as well payed and glamorous as this film makes it out to be!

The two central characters are pretty good and the film develops into a fine conclusion. My favorite scene is near the end when a devastated husband (played excellently by Peter Mullan) confronts Pierre for sleeping with his wife and charging her for the pleasure.

This is worth a watch just don't expect too much from it.

Intrigued is what I felt when I bought my ticket, surprised is what I felt when the movie started, but what exactly is what I felt when I left the theater ? I still don't know, but it felt good.

Michel Blanc is more used to making funny movies (either as an actor or as a director), and is very good at that. But here, that's a totally different kind of movie. Here he goes deeper into human relationships by trying to understand what happens when a human being freaks out.

The story of Pierre, leaving his whole life behind to flee to London, escaping something (but what, really ?) is just what could happen to the guy next door, or even to you. And therefore, you see the movie with a totally different perspective, getting in the stead of this guy, seeing and understanding what happens to him, and saying to yourself "gosh, this could be me".

Pierre's freaking out and all that happens thereafter, is so very understandable that it makes the movie reach you to your deepest core. You take the character in sympathy, feel like he's someone you know. And when he trips, you trip along with him.

In the end, I spent a very good time watching this movie though I just didn't really know what to expect (my girlfriend took me to seeing it). This movie leaves you with a sensation inside, but what kind of sensation, I'm unable to describe... But it was NOT the sensation of having lost my time.