Mon Homme Reviews

Strictly for those who found PRETTY WOMAN a little too gritty. Leave it to Bertrand Blier -- auteur behind 1974's randy cause celebre GOING PLACES -- to buck any feminist trend afoot. Who else would dream of dragging out that old sexist "hooker with a heart of gold" sawhorse in this day and age? Feisty Marie (Anouk Grinberg), Blier's fantasy fleur of the streets, really loves her work. "I like men, I like money and I like selling dreams," she states matter-of-factly. Returning home one night after a "date," Marie finds the homeless Jeannot (Gerard Lanvin) asleep among the trash. She takes him upstairs, feeds him and, after succumbing to his irresistible animal sexuality, begs Jeannot to become her pimp. Jeannot finds it in his heart to comply, and after teaching the starry-eyed Marie how to take a few face slaps from the man who now owns her, begins to assemble his own little stable of working girls, converting respectable women into sex-crazed whores with a single wave of his magic wand. If your jaw hasn't made it all the way to the floor at this point, stick around for Jeannot's (read: Blier's) insipid apology to Marie and women everywhere. It's all so stupefyingly retrograde you might not even notice -- or care -- how sharp-looking and well-acted the film is. You really haven't come far at all, bebe.