lodie Bouchez plays Isa, a streetwise, happy-go-lucky twenty year old who drifts into the northern French town of Lille with nothing but her backpack and sunny optimism. While selling her homemade greeting cards she manages to con her way into some casual work at a sewing workshop where she meets the emotionally upside-down Marie (Rgnier), a brooding and introverted loner who has ceased contact with her parents. The two girls quickly discover an affinity and bond as inseparable friends. They share a flat, and as lone rebels with the same comic irreverence, go night-clubbing together. Both struggle to connect with others but manage to derive some amusement by engaging in brief flings with the nightclub bouncers.

The ideal friendship is deceptive however. Despite forewarnings from Isa, Marie's tragic desperation leads her into a sordid affair with Chris (Colin), the arrogant nightclub owner who toys with her emotions. Marie's self-loathing and bleak iciness eventually clash too heavily with Isa's warm and happy glow. Through the moody haze of Gauloise cigarettes this film delicately studies the friendship between two lost girls and their daily desperation. Both portraits are so elaborately painted that the viewer becomes fully absorbed by the beauty and youth of both women and by the ordinariness of their heart-breaking situations. Bouchez and Rgnier shared the Best Actress Award at Cannes in 1998 for their natural and absorbing portrayals of Isa and Marie. The film also received the European Critics Award at Cannes so you can be certain that this film is a must-see.

French, with English subtitles

A huge hit in its native France, Would I Lie to You? finished second at the box office to Men In Black. Now there's something to think about! This film is unashamedly a male-oriented ensemble piece showing the fast talking, flashy world of exuberant young wholesalers at work and play. The story is set in Sentier, the Jewish garment district of Paris that is mainly populated by rag trade merchants. It is the tale of Eddie (Anconina), the hero, who leads us on a journey from rags to riches (excuse the pun). Eddie is a luckless drifter who is taken in by the Sentier patriarch who makes the assumption that Eddie is Jewish, an assumption that Eddie never disclaims. The only hitch is the fact that he is not Jewish. As such, the film is full of embarrassing displays of Eddie's lack of knowledge of the Jewish faith-addressing Rabbis as 'Father' and offering to show proof of his mother's opposition to circumcision (ouch!). Of course there are other obstacles in his journey to become a successful businessman, not the least being his feelings for the 'wrong girl'.

The ending is predictably sentimental, but worth waiting for. Indeed, due to the predictability you can spend less time wondering what is going to happen next and more time enjoying the film moment by moment, particularly Eddie's attendance at a Sabbath meal which should put a smile on your face.