Palais Royal!

Last night, on June 7, 2006, I went to see the French comedy, Palais Royal! starring Lambert Wilson, Catherine Deneuve and Valérie Lemercier.

It was also Valérie Lemercier who wrote and directed the movie, so in a way, you can say it's a vanity piece.

The movie is based upon a royal family in a fictitious European nation, where Catherine Deneuve is the queen, whose husband has died in a helicopter accident. So, she picks Lambert Wilson's character, who is the younger son, to be the heir to the throne, since she uses a technicality that his eldest son isn't married. However, it is clear in the film that the younger son is her favourite, which is the reason why he was heir to the throne.

However, there is this major scandal where Valérie Lemercier's character discovers that her husband (Wilson) is cheating on her, so she comes up with this plan to get back at him and the royal family. This comedy is sort of similar to spoofing the Royal family in England, and in fact, they make fun of being in England a bit, since they do some shopping.

Lemercier's character takes on a role that is very similar to Princess Di's role. The humanitarian princess, who also has a love affair out of the marriage.

This movie was funny, and I liked it. I did find it difficult sometimes, because the humour was very francophone. But I did get most of the jokes. It was also enjoyable that I saw the movie with Claude. After the movie, we went back to his place, and had some cake, which he bought from a really nice bakery that is close to his house. The cake was a chocolate layer cake, with a small layer of lemon, it was delicious, but a bit heavy. Claude is a very nice guy, smart, handsome, caring, etc.

This is where I suppose I say to Roman, "It's too late now... I won't look back." (And launch into Willa Ford's song - Did Ya' Understand That?"