“I’m about to come of a closet I never went into”

A mini-review, but a very positive one! Five reasons why I love The Closet (Le Placard):

1. Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, Thierry L’hermitte, Michèle Laroque, Jean Rochefort, in fact pretty much all the cast.  And the interactions between said actors.
2. It’s fresh and funny, I mean laugh out loud funny.  I found myself giggling, which is altogether rare for most movies these days.  The sight of Auteuil with a large pink condom on his head will linger long in the memory!
3. There’s a charming old-school quality to Francis Veber‘s script and direction, reminding me of comedies of the 40s to 60s and the social manners of those times, helping it stand apart from romcomdom!
4. It’s the most perspicacious analysis of the subtleties of sexual politics and social mores than any I’ve seen in a good many years, notably about the assumed revelation that a meek and mild mid-ranking accountant is gay – which transforms his life and earns him respect in ways he had never previously encountered, much less anticipated.
5. That it succeeds in this mission in a compact 84 minutes is huge credit to Veber.  How many movies drone on and on and on without actually adding anything?  Less sometimes really is more!

Try this French movie, subtitles and all, and be prepared to be taken by complete surprise. Not difficult to see why I find French cinema irresistibly wonderful!