The dashing and debonair Academy Award-winning actor from The Artist, Jean Dujardin, lights up the screen as a swashbuckling lothario-turned-faux-hero in a bawdy new comedy from writer-director Laurent Tirard (Little Nicholas, 2009); the brand new “OSS at Napoleon's time”. It is 1809 in France and the great seducer, Captain Neuville (Jean Dujardin, also in Möbius, AF FFF2015; Un Plus Une, AF FFF2016), comes to ask for the hand of the young Pauline (Noémie Merlant) in marriage. But Pauline’s sister, Elisabeth
(Mélanie Laurent, Boomerang, AF FFF2016; director of Tomorrow AF FFF2017; and possibly best-known to English language audiences as Shosanna in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards, 2009) proves impervious to Neuville’s charms. When Neuville is called to the front and Pauline sits anxiously waiting for news, Elisabeth takes to the pen and, through her
valiant prose, makes him a real hero of war when the reality is decidedly different. Then Neuville returns for his bride… Part Casanova, part Cyrano de Bergerac and many parts funny, The Return of the Hero comes together through the chemistry of its enigmatic leads, particularly Dujardin and
Laurent, who are unimpeachable in their comic abilities.
Tuesday 27th February
TBC
M
Film Festival
