How Much Do You Love Me? Bertrand Blier is still shaking us up.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Bertrand Blier is at it again: pushing those envelopes; surprising, delighting and confusing us; in short, shaking us up. This award-winning writer/director (César, Oscar, National Society of Film Critics and more), with 21 films to his credit, is now approaching age 70. From his first international hit Les Valseuses (titled Going Places here in the U.S., and which gave Gerard Depardieu his breakout role), to his Best Foreign Film Préparez vos mouchoirs, through Buffet froid, Beau-Père, Menage, Trop belle pour toi, Un deux trois soleil and Mon homme, he has pretty consistently knocked around our ideas about men, women, love, sex, society and relationships. His latest, How Much Do You Love Me? (Combien tu m'aimes?) does it all over again, while providing succulent roles for a prestige cast: Bernard Campan (seen this past year in The Man in My Life), Monica Bellucci, Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Edouard Baer. Though the film had a (very slight) theatrical release in 2006, you couldn't prove it by me. The only American reviews seem to have come from little-known sources--mostly, I suspect, from those viewing the just-released DVD.

A rather schlumpy fellow who's just won the national lottery shows up at a glitzy-looking whorehouse to purchase the services of one of its stable--for life, or at least until the francs are finished. So begins this tale of love and money, which, as it twists and turns, draws as many laughs as shocks, as much surprise as sex (but don't worry, there's plenty of the latter). Blier often deals in archetypes: man, woman, whore, worker drone, and so forth—which he usually turns on their head. Further, he has interesting enough ideas (rather far afield from those found in most American films) which he and his able actors manage to enliven so that his stylistic tricks (which work better than half the time) won't put you off all that much. Here, he uses opera arias, exaggerated actions and ironic reversals to propel his story along its very amusing way.

If there was, till now, any doubt that Ms. Bellucci is the most beautiful, sexy, womanly actress in the world, How Much Do You Love Me? should permanently put this to rest. After her breakthrough as the titular Malena, through to her game turn in the ugly Irreversible and her stunning surprise in last year's Shoot 'em Up, her role here as Daniela allows her to offer us just about everything, and she does. I can't think of another actress today who possesses such a clear sense of her own self without a trace of vanity or false modesty, clothes on or clothes off. All she needs to do is look quietly at the camera, and you are pulled in and held fast. Campan makes a fine "everyman," Depardieu a smiley/scary pimp, Darroussin an amusing doctor and Baer a funny/sad ladies' man. The whole cast is spot-on, including a sexy neighbor and the denizens of the Campan character's office, who always appear en masse--to add to the fun. I hope Blier continues to provide us his quirky, pulling-out-the-rug life lessons. It not just that nobody does it better. Nobody else does it at all.