Friday night plan

so, i clipped this from fresno famous, because i want to share with you. i'm going to the 8pm show.

Fresno Filmworks presents: The Valet

French master of comedy delivers another whimsical gem

Frenchman Francis Veber has been writing, producing, and directing comedies since the late 1960s. Among his best-known projects, Veber wrote the screenplay for The Birdcage (1996) and wrote and directed The Dinner Game (1998). In August, Filmworks will present Veber's latest film, The Valet, co-sponsored by screening sponsor L'Alliance Française de Fresno. Here's an excerpt from a review by Los Angeles Times critic Ken Turan:

Making people laugh is the specialty of the house where French writer and director Francis Veber is concerned—and he is awfully good at it. A master of cinematic farce, Veber's latest venture, The Valet, makes the creation of deliciously funny comedy look a lot easier than it has any right to.

The Valet marks the inevitable return of one of Veber's most popular characters, the earnest and somewhat clueless François Pignon, a personage so durable that four different actors have played him over the years.

Soulless billionaire Pierre Lavasseur--played by the versatile Daniel Auteuil, who portrayed François in Veber's 2001 film, The Closet--has romantic problems. Because his icy wife, Christine, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, is a major stockholder in his company, Pierre lives in fear that she will discover his secret relationship with the leonine Elena (Alice Taglioni), who happens to be the highest-paid supermodel in the world.

As always happens in a Veber film, Pierre's worst nightmare comes to pass. A paparazzo grabs a shot of the mogul and his mistress together. When confronted by his wife, Pierre tries a desperate ploy. Elena is not with him, he tells a dubious Christine. She is with a nerdy-looking guy who, in reality, was simply walking by and is captured in the picture completely by accident. The nerdy guy is François Pignon.

Because he is a billionaire, after all, Pierre has the financial and psychological means to persuade both Elena and François to pretend, against all reason, to be a romantic couple. The bulk of the film shows how this ruse is played out and the effects on the flabbergasted people who know parts of the parties involved.

The Valet
Friday, August 10, at the Tower Theatre
5 and 8 p.m.
Rated PG-13, 85 minutes
$10 general, $8 seniors and students
Tickets on sale at WineStyles, The Movies, the Tower box office, and via PayPal on FresnoFilmworks.org