Tirez la langue, mademoiselle

The original title is Tirez la langue, mademoiselle, or Stick your tongue out, miss. It has been translated as Miss and the Doctors or Say Ahh… . The characters are Boris and Dimitri (brothers, doctors, single, in their forties) and Judith (single mother in her mid- thirties, with pre-teenage daughter Alice). The subject is the pursuit of happiness and/or security under steadily decreasing options by the three characters.

I was immediately charmed by this movie. Boris and Dimitri obviously love and respect each other, and we learn about them as the movie progresses although mystery remains. Boris is qualified as a "failed athlete" by another character but we never know in what way he failed in what sport. Dimitri calls himself "an alcoholic", obviously in recovery, since we never see him under the influence. He attends AA meetings. Dimitri is more easygoing than Boris, but Boris has a way with children. We also learn of their warm relationship with their mother. At the beginning, the brothers' relationship with Judith is, both are Alice's physicians (Alice suffers from diabetes). Due to her night job, Judith finds it difficult to attend to her daughter's needs.

If comparisons must be made one thinks of the works of Eric Rohmer, but the characters here are a lot less cold and calculating than in Rohmer movies, there is little manipulation, and true love is present. The excellence of the scrip by director Axelle Ropert is evident in the dialogues; the characters (especially the two brothers) seldom answer as one expects, as in real life.

A not-to-be-missed movie. I hope more of Ropert's work becomes available in the rental services.