Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

This film first attracted me because of the casting - the leading roles in it are played by Fanny Ardant and Gerard Deparieu - two of the most prominent French actors. When I read a bit more about this film my attitude became much calmer - I noticed the word "prostitute" in the plot. I guess I`ve seen enough films featuring prostitution already - especially that goes for European films. But since I had very limited other options on my film list today I decided to give it a try. The film started with Catherine (Ardant) and her husband Bernard (Depardieu) who didn`t have a very good stage in their life as a married couple, especially considering that Bernard was cheating his wife now and then. So after receiving and addressed to her husband message from some woman stating "we had a great fuck last night" Catherine goes to a private club. And now I got really worried - will it be something like "Belle de jour" where she - a successful gynaecologist would eventually become a prostitute for no reason. But no - she hires Marlene (Emmanuelle Beart from "Mission Impossible" and "8 femmes" - films that I haven`t seen) to seduce her husband. And when she does and apparantely Marlene (who now calls herself Nathalie) also has some attraction towards Bernard (except for the money Catharine is paying her), the wife becomes jealous and starts terrorizing her husband. Everything would be fine, had the husband fallen for Nathalie - in the end when the story unveils Nathalie admits that she hasn`t done anything with Catharine`s husband for she just proved not to be his type but she wanted to earn some money without the need to be having sex for it. The whole triangle is kinda strange, of course, including Marlene who has quite a decent job as a hairdresser but who just can`t quite her nightlife, Catharine who enjoys suffering and knowing that a moron her husband is, and Bernard - who`s clueless about what`s going on and who in fact only wants to have sex with his wife.
Although at some stages it reminded me of "Closer" - a film that I wasn`t too fond of, and the twist at the end didn`t come that unexpected - even I who`s not known for unravelling mysteries was pretty aware of such a possibility although I expected that it would have this twist and after it - the backwards twist (yeah, I know that it wouldn`t be much more original than a simple twist), my final words are: this is a good film, and I can guarantee that you won`t find it boring.