Recalling a young Claude Brasseur’s roles in French movies like Jean-Luc Godard’s “Bande à part” in 1964 and François Truffaut’s 1972 “Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me” only embellishes the clockwork, lightweight comedy of a movie like Ivan Calbérac’s “The Student and Mister Henri” (adapting the stage hit “L’etudiante et Monsieur Henri”). The eighty-year-old Brasseur carries his history into the straightforward role of an ill-tempered Paris landlord who offers a room rent-free to young student Constance (Noémie Schmidt) if she will only seduce his son, Paul (Guillaume de Tonquédec) and drive him away from his wife, Valérie (Frédérique Bel). Very French; très petit. 98m. (Ray Pride)
“The Student And Mister Henri” opens Friday, November 25 at Siskel.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
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