Comedy drama starring Daniel Auteuil and Guillaume Canet. Disillusioned and doggedly old-fashioned former cartoonist Victor is thrown out of the house by his wife, Marianne. He is led to a specialist theatre troupe who re-enact historical moments for clients. The director, Antoine, offers his services to Victor, who chooses a very personal moment: the evening in 1974 when he met Marianne.
The offer of a night out involving a bespoke historical re-creation shakes up the stale marriage of bickering older couple Victor (Daniel Auteuil) and Marianne (Fanny Ardant) in this serio-comic French crowd-pleaser. Family friend Antoine (Guillaume Canet) is making a mint from wealthy folk eager to drink with Ernest Hemingway or hang out with Marie Antoinette - dreams made real by thoroughly researched settings and well-prepped actors. Victor, though, merely wants to re-create that night in 1974 when he met his future wife in a Lyon bar, and suspends disbelief to such a willing degree he's soon falling for the actress playing a younger, less spiky Marianne. Writer/director Nicholas Bedos adeptly avoids too much schmaltz or knockabout gags, instead keeping the fun factor alive as complications escalate. The result is layered yet accessible, a sure-fire conversation starter, and in insisting that true romance never gets old - maybe just a bit crankier! - allows ever-assured Auteuil and Ardant to deliver a regal exercise in old-school Gallic star power.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Victor Drumond | Daniel Auteuil |
| Antoine | Guillaume Canet |
| Margot | Doria Tillier |
| Marianne Drumond | Fanny Ardant |
| Pierre | Pierre Arditi |
| François | Denis Podalydès |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Nicolas Bedos |
