best movie i've ever seen.

Best movie ever!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

In the vein of biting political satires like 'In the loop' and 'Veep' (both having a lot of talent in common, both in front of, and behind the camera) and maybe even yesteryear's 'Yes, Minister', this work of art, based on a popular French graphic novel (informed by this movie's curator at the viewing venue) is as entertaining as those other works are. This also has similarities to the Michael Keaton | Geena Davis starrer, 'Speechless' (which could've had more bite, to be honest).There is also a lot of insight that seems to have gone into creating some timely and topical content (and I don't just refer to the running gag with the funny acronym for 'NATO') wrt France and its role in World politics, while keeping the tropes of the genre the same - viz, wheels-within-wheels, political machinations, permanently and consistently dealing only in abstractions, heavy impact from minuscule statements (something that literally drove 'In the loop') etc.The movie also shines a light into the personal lives of a few of our leads, also (in my opinion) boldly touching on how personal recommendations from proximity to powerful people is the only way to get quite a few things done, regardless of geo. The little things, that kept running throughout unflaggingly, really did it for me - the minister's entrance always disrupting various papers all the time, his tech-savviness or lack thereof (there's a really juvie gag on board the equivalent of AFO, where in spite of the juvie nature of the whole thing, it works big-time, in eliciting more than just guffaws - that, in addn to the juvie-level awkward high-5 moment), one lead character nodding off during meetings (with the Minister being completely oblivious to it - or is he?), airport-venue car seating allocations and its impact (something I thought would go in a different direction, but did not, and while that might not have worked in a lesser flick, in this one, it seemed like the makers took the high road, and I absolutely loved it), each para/statement needing to highlight a particular attribute, the minister's dad reflecting on 'those days' at possibly the most inopportune time possible, the 'fixer's' secretary ensuring that her boss' instructions are carried out (which keeping a caring, motherly eye on him), the running gag about the highlighter (hilarious, to say the least) and much, much more.......There is one sequence, in a restaurant, which has been choreographed like an elaborate fight sequence, or a dance move, or for the local audiences, something from a daytime soap (in terms of quick cuts from various camera positions, for varying perspectives, to provide greater impact) that is, by itself, imho, the price of admission. It goes on for a bit, and is hilarious, to say the least. If French was my native language of communication, it might have had greater impact, but both the acting, staging and eventual sub-titling are so good, that we could only marvel at the feat.Thierry Lhermitte, a la Tom Hollander (In the loop), is your typical foggy minister, but seems to more brains than he;s given credit for. It also shows the Red-Blue mix of bureaucrats around this seemingly conservative politician, who all have 1 goal, seemingly the minister's agenda, and the various tools and methods they use at their disposal to realize it, or a part of it. Veteran chameleon actor Niels Arestrup, playing the Peter Capaldi 'fixer' role, make it his own by doing completely the opposite of what Capaldi became known for, and yet captures every scene he's in, without being as showy, and showing us why it is not completely necessary (love Cpaaldi's interpretation of that character though).Our 'in' is the main (not really) naïve character, played by L'Affaire SK1's Raphaël Personnaz (to be fair, this is what he did before), and the makers let this character breathe, and we always use his perspective to view the various goings-on. His being castigated, his initial disbelief, his being a 'fish outta water' - everything, not just makes us root for this lead, but also gives us the perspective needed not just to get entertained, but also be informed, and maybe even take sides.Julie Gayet, is as effective as she is attractive, and her come-ons to various colleagues, and political courtship rituals are a hoot. The bureaucrat singing bawdy songs (inspired by Gayet's character's rituals, of course), that become popular even in the lead's household, seemed to me, to be a fantastic touch on the part of the makers to liven things up more, and it's great that they kept it as a running gag almost 3-4 times.Not to be missed, and worth repeated viewings.

When this movie's good, it's fantastic. Then again, when it's bad, it's overlong, faintly chauvinistic and most definitely thicker than two short planks. But don't get me wrong. It has a lot to recommend it. From an action point of view, this movie's about as much fun as you can have with your pants still on. I mean okay, the movie doesn't give its audience any credit for intelligence, utilising a paper-thin plot to lead us about like a blind man, and the entire cast is really just left to sit around and look pretty. We're getting force-fed bad movies these days and you instantly forget them when you leave the theatre, so it's nice to see a film that doesn't care if you like it or not. You won't be forgetting it in a hurry. It's worth your time.

Arthur Vlaminck is a fresh graduate from a noted university is hired to be a speech writer for the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexandre Taillard de Worms. Arthur would soon discover that his new boss is vainly self-centered and overly meticulous. Despite saying he wants a speech which is direct to the point, he has a speaking style that tends to be pretentious and rife with quotes from classic political texts. The script brings us in the thick of the daily goings-on in the French foreign ministry, as the busy bureaucrats address this and that conflict. While the superpowers, US, Germany and France, are mentioned by name, the smaller countries they have issues with are hidden under fictitious names, like Ludemistan or Ubanga. There are generous references to NATO and the UN Security Council. The elegant egoistic slave-driver Minister Taillard is very well- portrayed by Thierry Lhermitte. You will feel sorry and root for the harassed and toxic Arthur Vlamnick as played by Raphaël Personnaz as he not only deals with his difficult boss, but all the other big egos in the staff as well. Nils Arestrup provides that balancing force as he calmly plays the efficient Chief of Staff Claude Maupas.From the start, you already get that this is written as a political satire as you witness Taillard address pressing issues with his strange idiosyncrasies -- how he orders a rewrite without even reading the draft, how he makes papers fly around by merely entering the room, or how he wildly wields his neon highlighter as he goes through his readings. This pattern unfortunately tends to be repetitive and will lose steam as the film progresses.

I can think - as, I am sure, can you - of at least a dozen French film directors I would check out if I was in the mood for satire/comedy before getting round to Bertrand Tavernier. Nevertheless that is what he serves up here in the twilight of a career devoted to more dramatic fare. People like Tavernier and his principal players - Thierry Thermitte, Niels Arestrup - don't, of course, do mediocre so we are speaking of an entertaining evening even if your knowledge of French politics is non- existent (although, purely by coincidence, the presence of Julie Gayet in a major supporting role is unlikely to harm its chances at the box office and it's really refreshing to see a young French actor - in this case Rafael Personnaz - who is the complete antitheses of the current crop that embraces Romain Duris, Gal Ulliel, Benoit Magimal, who alternate between sullen and arrogant, each firmly convinced he is God's gift. In short whilst not vintage Tavernier it is far from chopped liver.