Un couple épatant
| Un couple épatant | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lucas Belvaux |
| Produced by |
Diana Elbaum Patrick Sobelman |
| Written by | Lucas Belvaux |
| Starring |
Ornella Muti François Morel Gilbert Melki |
| Music by | Riccardo del Fra |
| Cinematography | Pierre Milon |
| Edited by | Valérie Loiseleux |
| Distributed by | Diaphana Films (France) |
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Release date
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | France Belgium |
| Language | French |
Un couple épatant (English: An Amazing Couple; also known as Trilogy: Two) is a 2002 French-Belgian film written and directed by Lucas Belvaux.
This is the second installment of a series Trilogy, which constitutes a comedy preceded by One: On the run, a thriller and followed by Three: After life, a melodrama.
Belvaux referred in the DVD commentary that main idea behind Trilogy is that the main characters in a particular story are the secondary characters of others, in such sense the three films happen at the same time and share a series of common scenes and plot points, complementing each other, but also have their own perspective and style. The audience is left with piecing the films together, which Belvaux avoided, since editing the three films into one single narrative would have resulted in a very long film with no style of its own.
On a Friday evening, just before closing time Alain Coste is in his office and gets ready to leave, Claire, his PA, manages to stall him a couple of minutes, he goes out and she steals his keys just before he comes back for his jacket. Claire calls Cécile Coste to report that Alain has left. Alain goes to see Georges Colinet, his physician who tells him that he has tennis elbow and must have an operation. Alain becomes very worried that this operation shall take his life despite all assurances to the contrary. Later on Alain goes to a park and he starts a series of will projects that he dictates in a pocket tape recorder that he carries around, the first will distributes his assets 50/50% to his wife and children, 98% of his company shall go to his children and the remaining 2% to Claire and some moneys that he has in a Swiss bank-account shall go to the Fund for Cancer Research.
At home Cécile is worried that Alain is not back yet and assumes that the worst has happened (which she does all the time). It is clear that she is preparing a surprise birthday party for Alain, her daughter Louise is there with her boyfriend Henry helping in the kitchen. Police lights are visible from the kitchen and Cécile goes to the door, but it is Police Inspector Pascal Manise who arrives to drop his wife Agnès. The doorbell rings, it is Dr. Colinet who arrives. In the meantime Alain is lost in his own neighbourhood, he cannot find his house and comes close to having a car accident with Manise; when finally home he tells Cécile that he was late because he gave Claire a ride home. The party begins and Rémy and Louise sing "Les roses blanches" to him instead of "Happy Birthday to You". When Agnès congratulates Alain she says "may you have more days like this", which he takes as a dark omen. Georges assures him that nothing is wrong with him and gives him back his keys to a chalet Alain owns in the nearby mountains, which he used for a romantic escapade.
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