La Discrète

Antoine, a writer without ambition, is abruptly left by his girlfriend Solange for another man. Wounded in his pride, Antoine tells about his troubles to Jean Costal, his bookseller-publisher friend. Jean proposes to Antoine to use his story with Solange as a starting point for a new book. Antoine is going to pick a woman at random, make her fall in love with him, and then leave her. At the same time, he will keep a detailed journal of the experience, which Jean will publish as a novel.

Hesitant at first, Antoine then proceeds with the plan and puts up an ad to find a typist, targeting exclusively young females. He then meets Catherine, whom he deems unattractive, but Jean convinces Antoine that this very aspect would make her a good candidate. But as Antoine gets to know Catherine better, the perfect plan starts falling apart.

• Fabrice Luchini as Antoine
• Judith Henry as Catherine
• Maurice Garrel as Jean
• Marie Bunel as Solange
• François Toumarkine as Manu
• Brice Beaugier as Solange's friend
• Yvette Petit as Baker's wife
• Nicole Félix as Monique
• Olivier Achard as Customer
• Serge Riaboukine as Cafe waiter
• Katia Popova as Girl in cafe
• Amy Laviètes as Ewa
• Hélène Hardouin as Catherine's friend
• Maria Verdi as Woman in restaurant
• Pierre Gérald as Scientist
• Sophie Broustal as Girl in pink

In the late 1980s, Christian Vincent did research on 18th century women's fashion. It was intended for a collective film project for which he was to direct a sketch.[1] In the 18th century, women were wearing little patches, made of a piece of taffeta, to set off the paleness of their skin. Those fake moles, glued to the skin, were known as "mouches."

The project failed to materialize but it gave the filmmaker the idea for his first feature. The film title refers to the nickname that Antoine gives Catherine because of the mole on her chin. As he explains, in the 18th-century fashion code, such mole was called "discreet."

Producer Alain Rocca founded his company, Les Productions Lazennec, as a workshop for young film-school graduates. The first feature film, Love without Pity, that Rocca produced in 1989, was a critical success, and won a César Award for Best First Feature Film. La Discrète was his second project, with the modest budget of 11.24 million francs ($2.2 million).[2] The script was written by Christian Vincent who worked on it for more than a year with co-writer Jean-Pierre Ronssin. The writers were not paid for this work until the film was in production. The leading roles were given to relatively unknown actors: Fabrice Luchini and Judith Henry. The production went rather smoothly, and the film came in under budget. The actual cost was 10.46 million francs ($1.97 million).[2]

The film was released in France on November 21, 1990, sold 1.4 million tickets, and became the 20th most watched film of the year.[3] It didn't do well at the U.S. box-office, where it earned only $100,000 in 1992, and failed to recover even its promotional costs.[2]

The film received wide critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Times said: "Life is not a game, but "La Discrete" is: exquisite, humorous, touching, knowing, beautifully played. The characters may lose, but their audience won't."[4] TV Guide called it "richly ironic, erotic, ephemeral, intellectually provocative and downright earthy," and added that it is "one of those deceptively small films that rocks the soul with its almost offhanded insights into eternal human truths. It's as good as Rohmer's best, with a lot less talk and a much harder edge."[5] In Film Comment critic Molly Haskell named it her favorite film of the year.[6] The Austin Chronicle called it "a wonderful, honest film", and said that Vincent's direction is "so self-assured it's hard to believe this is his first feature film."[7] Time Out said it was a "very Rohmer-esque film", and commented that "the interest lies not so much in the predictable intrigue - it almost reads like a commonplace seduction comedy - as in the treatment of a particularly unpalatable strain of French amorous discourse."[8]

1991 César Awards:

• Best First Feature Film (Christian Vincent) - Winner
• Best Writing (Christian Vincent, Jean-Pierre Ronssin) - Winner
• Best Female Newcomer (Judith Henry) - Winner
• Best Actor (Fabrice Luchini) - Nominee
• Best Supporting Actor (Maurice Garrel) - Nominee

1990: Prix Méliès

• La Discrète at IMDb