French Kiss (1995)
Growing up, I probably watched French Kiss at least twenty times. Countless household phrases in my family have come from it, and I already knew several French phrases before I started studying it in school. So, it’s not only educational but it’s hilarious! It’s one of the funniest movies of the decade, and since the ’90s were one of the funniest decades, that’s quite a compliment. Adam Brooks’ screenplay contains far more than a laugh a minute, as every single word that comes out of the hero’s mouth is hilarious.
The heroine, Meg Ryan, plays a woman who lives by the rules. She’s set aside money every week since she turned twenty-one for a nest egg, and she’s methodically transitioning from American to Canadian citizenship. Her fiancé Timothy Hutton is traveling to Paris for a business trip, but because she’s not supposed to leave the country until her paperwork comes through, Meg stays behind. She gets the dreaded phone call within a week: Tim has fallen in love with a French “goddess” and plans to stay in Paris. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Meg boards the next plane out of Toronto—despite disobeying the citizenship rules and a lifelong fear of flying.
From the first moment she sits in her seat, everything goes wrong. She’s seated next to a “nicotine-saturated, and sorry to say, hygiene deficient Frenchman”: Kevin Kline is transformed as Luc Teyssier; for the first several years of my childhood, I thought he was a French actor. Yes, I saw Dave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I was convinced he was French. That other actor with the same name was a completely different person, I thought. This Kevin Kline is 100% French, his mannerisms, his expressions, his attitude, and of course, his accent. And, considering that the movie was originally written for Gérard Depardieu, he had some pretty big French shoes to fill. Everyone knows how much I love Gérard, and he would have been wonderful, but Kevin’s fantastic in his own right.
I love every bit of this movie, from the on-location filming, to the quotable phrases, to the touching moments that show each character’s growth. It’s a uniquely French, yet not-French comedy that proves the importance of taking risks even when you’re terrified. Where else can you learn the exact pronunciation of “Luc”, find out what happy people do to Kevin Kline’s behind, watch Meg Ryan have an outburst at the George V, and understand the power of the “bull***t,” which, with a little practice, can become as easy as breathing? If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it (a few months) then you’re in need of another viewing!
More Kevin Kline movies here!
The heroine, Meg Ryan, plays a woman who lives by the rules. She’s set aside money every week since she turned twenty-one for a nest egg, and she’s methodically transitioning from American to Canadian citizenship. Her fiancé Timothy Hutton is traveling to Paris for a business trip, but because she’s not supposed to leave the country until her paperwork comes through, Meg stays behind. She gets the dreaded phone call within a week: Tim has fallen in love with a French “goddess” and plans to stay in Paris. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Meg boards the next plane out of Toronto—despite disobeying the citizenship rules and a lifelong fear of flying.
From the first moment she sits in her seat, everything goes wrong. She’s seated next to a “nicotine-saturated, and sorry to say, hygiene deficient Frenchman”: Kevin Kline is transformed as Luc Teyssier; for the first several years of my childhood, I thought he was a French actor. Yes, I saw Dave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I was convinced he was French. That other actor with the same name was a completely different person, I thought. This Kevin Kline is 100% French, his mannerisms, his expressions, his attitude, and of course, his accent. And, considering that the movie was originally written for Gérard Depardieu, he had some pretty big French shoes to fill. Everyone knows how much I love Gérard, and he would have been wonderful, but Kevin’s fantastic in his own right.
I love every bit of this movie, from the on-location filming, to the quotable phrases, to the touching moments that show each character’s growth. It’s a uniquely French, yet not-French comedy that proves the importance of taking risks even when you’re terrified. Where else can you learn the exact pronunciation of “Luc”, find out what happy people do to Kevin Kline’s behind, watch Meg Ryan have an outburst at the George V, and understand the power of the “bull***t,” which, with a little practice, can become as easy as breathing? If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it (a few months) then you’re in need of another viewing!
More Kevin Kline movies here!