Seven minutes, a cocktail, and many dizzy spells lead to the perfect mate

Publicity for Jean-Marc Moutout's new film , The Feelings Factory/La fabrique des sentiments (Paris-released Feb 5, 2008), is misleading in making it look like a story about speed dating: "seven women, seven men, seven minutes and a cocktail." There are two speed dating sequences, sparklingly staged and photographed. And a picture built around this curiously mechanical modern way of finding a mate might have been a good idea--but what Moutout's doing is not that simple by a long sight. Focused on a main character who's a successful 36-year-old professional woman in Paris without a man in her life, The Feelings Factory does its best to be complex and contemporary about the issues faced by such a person, and in various scenes taken separately certainly succeeds at that. But as a whole the film winds up being scattered and unconvincing. Moutout ought to relax and focus a bit more, give more consideration to narrative structure and character and let the social anatomizing take second place, and he could make a more involving, coherent film.

Eloise (Elsa Zylberstein, of the excellent La petite Jerusalem, and quite believable here) is a member of a posh Paris firm specialized in residential law who (we're to believe) is so accomplished at her job the senior partner proposes to have her take his place upon his imminent retirement. That would be a challenge in itself--one that might make marriage look like a difficult proposition, despite the ticking biological clock. Eloise doesn't seem nervous about this new prospect. In fact she immediately proposes to her family to take on the expenses of maintaining her aging grandma at home, based on the expected new income.

The speed dating, on the other hand, shows a certain desperation on her part--even though she pretends it's just an efficient "businesslike" method; it also simply signals on her part a lack of time to deal with a personal life. It's being videoed for TV (Eloise declines to be the focus) and is presented as something bright and glossily cinematic as a TV show. Besides the non-entities, there's a man who does nothing but complain about his inadequacy and the ridiculousness of this way of finding a mate. He's Andre (Jacques Bonnaffé). Since Bonnaffé is a busy and well-known actor with second billing here (American viewers may remember him from Lemming), we have to be suspicious, and the whole movie is built on the trite gambit that the least likely participant turns out to be the keeper. Conversely the "perfect" fellow, Jean-Luc (Bruno Putzulu), himself a presentable-looking and successful lawyer who turns out to be attentive and good in bed, is, of course, a fake who lies and cheats. Luckily Eloise finds out--coincidentally, while at the hospital, where she spots him with another woman who's obviously central to his life.

The hospital visits are due to a whole other issue: on top of missing her periods and having unwonted lactation, she is having dizzy spells. It is this health problem that looms over most of the action. It's a while before Eloise gets a diagnosis and a while longer before there is treatment. Meanwhile as Jean-Luc is turning out wrong and the huge promotion is offered and caring for grandma is considered, Andre keeps popping up unexpectedly.

It's pretty obvious that Bonnaffé is meant to be the voice of humanity, the one "real" person among the "eligible" men Eloise encounters in her plastic yuppie world. The writing makes him alternately neurotic as hell and deeply philoosophical. Is his view of life negative or merely realistic? The actor is well cast for this. He's a bit like Jean-Pierre Bacri, but not quite as edgy and smart: a man who can be a complete nerd or just a pain in the butt one minute, and a laugh a minute the next. When Bonnaffé's character Andre gets into Eloise's big apartment, though, he typically ruins everything, and his dating history (the dialogue at this point curiously seems to be a continuation of the speed dating session) makes him sound extremely unpromising. The better to make her lifelong soulmate, apparently.

A final coda leaps forward several years to find Eloise married with a couple of adorable kids. How she got there, and in fact what happened to her partnership in the law firm, are matters the film leaves blank. And what the final scene is about escapes me.

The film received moderate reviews in Paris. Others besides myself felt the sociology and the health problem detracted from the focus of the film and made it unwieldy.

Shown as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, Feb. 29-March 9, 2008.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.