Priceless (2008)

"Priceless" (Hors de prix) is a romantic comedy of a sort only the French would make. Jean Simon (Gad Elmaleh) is a bartender at a posh hotel on the French Riviera so conditioned to fulfill the guests' every wish that he can't say "no". Irene Mercier (Audrey Tautou) is an attractive young woman kept by a wealthy older man whom she hopes to marry to secure a life of luxury. When Irene's companion Jacques (Vernon Dobtcheff) falls asleep and spoils her plans for the evening, Irene dejectedly saunters to the hotel bar, where she mistakes Jean for a rich guest. Jean sheepishly accommodates her mistake, and they have a drunken fling. When she returns to the hotel a year later, engaged to Jacques, their mutual attraction threatens her marriage plans, Jean's job, and everyone's equilibrium.

This is a genuinely charming and funny film, but I had to laugh at its effrontery as well as it script. "Priceless" adopts a jaunty, optimistic tone at the point when Jean and Irene begin prostituting themselves to rich patrons. This film would not be made in the Untied States. It accepts the casual exchange of sex for money as an amusing and self-evident aspect of life, and sexual jealousy simply does not exist. Irene couldn't be more charming than when she attempts to educate a smitten Jean on the arts of gold-digging and seduction. Irene and Jean's meal tickets, the wealthy bon vivants that keep them in designer fashions, are interesting and smart people themselves, which helps elevate the film.

And there is always something interesting going on the background. I enjoyed director Pierre Salvadori's peeks behind the scenes at how luxury hotels function. I was impressed by his respect for the support staffs that keep the hotels running, and it enhanced the feeling of grandeur that Irene single-mindedly seeks. "Priceless" was obviously inspired by "Breakfast at Tiffany's", a film that I don't care for. It is not as coy about the lady's profession, however. And Jean and Irene are much more appealing and good-humored leads. "Priceless" is a very good-looking film, a scandalous tale that wisely gives no hint of scandal, with a smart, funny script. There are no bonus features on the First Look 2008 DVD. Subtitles are available in English SDH and Spanish.

I'm going out on a limb and giving this film 5 stars. No it's not epic long lasting cinema, but it's a perfectly enjoyable, wonderfully well made, bit of entertainment. It's in the same vein as Cousin Cousine Cousin, Cousine, or when you read the synopsis, not a movie you would want to watch. However, the French have this ability to make films that take what, to American sensibility, would be an offensive film, and make it charming.

This film is a little charming film. From the start you are drawn in, beautiful scenery, an intriguing bell man (Jean) working hard to make money. Working so hard, Jean actually falls asleep standing up while working. And the counterpart is a young woman (Irene) with an older man. He passes out drunk on her birthday and she ends up with the Jean. You can think long and hard about what Irene does or is, but why? By this time you are hooked on the charm of this film. Just go along, enjoy the ride.

The scenery in and around Nice is wonderful. The people are beautiful. The language gorgeous. The sun, the sea, just enjoy.

We watched this movie on a cold December snowy evening, and enjoyed the full two hours non-stop.

The subtitles / translation is done rather well. The only nit to pick, the name of the film. Hors de Prix is more like outrageously priced, or extremely expensive. It's not necessarily pricelss. With the matercard ads we lean more to priceless meaning, can't be bought for any money. Like Jean, hors de prix, humans can buy these things, they might just have to take out loans to buy them. Priceless things can't be bought.

As was said in another review, the sex bits are very subtle. It's definately a romantic film. This is really a PG-13 film if you used language (the f word is never said or subtitled), nudity (there is none), and violence (somebody gets slapped with no blood) as your gauge (as the MPAA does on American films). However, the topic, well it's probably not going to be interesting to anyone under 15 or 16 anyway.

Very enjoyable film. Charming. A real pleasure to watch. A great cold night watch.

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This gem sparkles like diamonds on display in Tiffany's. Audrey Tautou shows her physical beauty and amazing acting range, pulling off a seemingly impossible character arc from selling her self to the highest bidder to finding true love. Twists along the way let us see the world from all points of view, a rare thing in storytelling. Having it all feel seamless and natural is an amazing tour de force by actors, writers, film crew and the director. "Priceless" is one of the very few romantic comedies that can be watched again without losing an ounce of its punch. And whoever did the costumes for Ms. Tautou deserves an Academy Award.

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Like Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Pierre Salvadori's "Priceless" could be considered distinctly unsavory if the story weren't so funny and the actors so charming. Both films share a basic theme--sexual hanky-panky in luxurious resort hotels--but whereas "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" concentrates on the sex itself, making it thoroughly American, "Priceless" is very French in concentrating on the dollars-and-cents (or euros-and-cents) calculations of love for a price. "Priceless" redeems itself by having true love triumph over money in the end (and you knew it would going into this movie; this is "Priceless," not "Darling.") Audrey Tautou is alluringly hard-edged as a shameless golddigger who, through a series of mixups, ends up sleeping with a shy barman (Gad Elmaleh) she mistakes for a tycoon. The mixup costs Tautou her current sugar daddy, with nothing and no one to fall back on. When Elmaleh presses his suit, Tautou exacts an expensive revenge which leads to all sorts of repercussions and complications, all set against the opulent backdrops of Biarritz and Monte Carlo captured glowingly by cinematographer Gilles Henry. Tautou is funny and touching as a mercenary woman who gradually melts under the spell of true love, and Elmaleh is a perfect example of the lovable deadpan comedians France excels at producing. The various rich folk whom Tautou and Elmaleh, ahem, bump up against--played to perfection by Marie-Christine Adam, Vernon Dobtcheff, and Jacques Spiesser--become more loathsome with each second of screen time, making the ultimate triumph of love over money all the sweeter. "Priceless" is a prime, and unexpectedly pointed, example of French bedroom farce.

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Hors de Prix (Priceless) stars audrey tatou ("amelie," l'auberge espagnole," "dirty pretty things")as a woman who exists and subsists on the kindness of rich old men but only for a short time: before she gets bored, before he dies, before she realizes that there is another bigger score afoot. tatou plays irene (she is painfully thin in a play i think to replicate the mesmerizing, luminous audrey hepburn of "breakfast at tiffany's") and to add some friction to the mix, director pierre salvadori manipulates a meeting between irene and jean ( gad elmaleh) a poor guy who irene mistakes for her next victim but who meets a rich woman who absurdly wants jean to be her paid escort. Irene takes on the job of transforming jean into a proper french gigolo.

what is refreshing about this film is that director salvadori and his writer are not conflcted in the least about irene and what she does: there is no judgement about these kinds of things in french films. irene's actions are deliberate and goal oriented. irene is a prostitue (a high class one, yes but a prostitute nonetheless), a gold digger, a woman who lives off the kindness of old men who crave her company and her affection.

gold digging as an elevated, something to be strived for activity/way of life: the interplay between jean and irene is witty, fun and thoughtful as irene teaches jean the ropes.

"Priceless" is a frothy bit of film making, made even lighter by Audray Tatou's ethereal Irene and gad elmalah's sad sack Jean.the idea that we americans are going to re-make this film sends shudders up my spine. quelle dommage!

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