La cloche a sonné (2005) User Reviews

For Whom The Belles Toil

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 3 September 2005]

This is essentially a vehicle for one of France's best kept secrets, Fabrice Luchini, who spends lot of his time in the theatre in Paris with occasional forays into films that have mainly domestic appeal - one exception being Patrice Lecontes 'Confidances trop intimes' that was shown in England and possibly the U.S.A as well. This time around he's one of those therapists who promise a cure for everything from Elton John to Martians In The Attic and in order to get the benefit of his method you sign up for a course at his isolated château where the price includes health food. We join him as a new intake - three men, three women - arrive and what follows is fairly par for the course but nonetheless entertaining. Dress is casual but that's a word that's open to interpretation; one girl comes down from her room completely naked, which is about as casual as you can get whilst at the other end of the spectrum Francois Cluzet persists in wearing a suit and tie throughout but predictably leaves in jeans and no tie which tells everyone he's cured. I suspect this is another entry aimed only at the domestic market but I could be wrong. I hope so.