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.
