French Kiss (film)  

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French Kiss is a 1995 American romantic comedy film set primarily in France, starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.

Contents

Plot

Kate (Meg Ryan) is a fastidious, intelligent, and innocent young woman who thinks she knows exactly what her future will be, planning it according to logic. She plans to marry a Toronto doctor named Charlie (Timothy Hutton) and live a "happily ever after" with him as soon as he comes back from a business trip to Paris something that Charlie initially asked Kate to accompany him on, but she declined due to her fear of flying. Her plans get ruined, when her fiancé becomes smitten with a beautiful, young French woman named Juliette (Susan Anbeh) and while drunk inside a club, calls Kate and informs her that he's in love, and not returning.

Determined to get him back, Kate overcomes her fear of flying and boards a flight for Paris. Onboard, she is seated next to a Frenchman named Luc Teyssier (Kline), a crude petty thief whom she is forced to tolerate for seven hours of the flight. They have choppy, sarcastic conversation on the flight from Canada to Paris. Luc hides a stolen diamond necklace and a small grapevine in her purse to get them past customs, causing him to track Kate and follow her.

Many mishaps occur between Kate and Luc. When she waits at the hotel Charlie is staying at, a bellhop makes flirtatious advances, and when Kate faints after watching Charlie and Juliette together, he steals her bag. Luc comes and wakes up Kate, and hunts down her bag for the necklace, but to no avail. Kate and Luc argue, and they both go their separate ways for a time, but find each other again. Under the pretense for helping Kate win back Charlie, he stays close with her to be near the necklace, the whereabouts of which are not revealed. Meanwhile, until they return to where Charlie is, they stay at Luc's family's house, a vineyard. It turns out that Luc and his brother are bitter towards each other because Luc's brother got him drunk, tricked him, and took Luc's birthright to an area of the vineyard in one hand of poker.

The two return to the city of Paris, with Luc pretending to be Kate's lover in an attempt to make Charlie jealous. While attending a dance, Charlie apologizes to Kate and attempts to seduce her; her facial expression hints that she is confused and indecisive as to whether or not she loves Charlie, but goes up to the hotel room with him. Meanwhile, Juliette flirts with Luc, and the two go up into a hotel room together also. Kate stops Charlie, demands to know up-front whether he loves her, and when he hesitates and gives a vague inclination, she realizes that she never loved Charlie. Luc, on the other hand, calls Juliette "Kate", causes her to become annoyed and leave. In the morning, the two are seemingly awkward with each other, asking each other how their night was.

Kate and Luc say goodbye to each other while Kate tells him she is leaving for the airport.

After realizing his true feelings, Luc runs to Kate and confesses that he's in love with her. The film ends with a shot of Luc and Kate standing in a growing vineyard, their arms wrapped around each other.

Cast

The film's screenwriter Adam Brooks has a cameo appearance as the 'perfect passenger' sitting next to Kevin Kline's character during the flight.

Production

The lead role of Luc was originally written with the expectation that it would be performed by Gerard Depardieu. Kevin Kline stepped into the role when Depardieu was not available for the film.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113117/trivia</ref>

Music

Noted on the film's soundtrack are Paolo Conte's "Via con me", Van Morrison's "Someone Like You", Charles Trenet's "La Mer" performed by Kevin Kline, and "La Vie en Rose" performed by Louis Armstrong. The Beautiful South also did a cover of Dream a Little Dream of Me; Jason Statham was an extra in the video.

Filming locations

The film takes place in three locations in France: Paris, Valbonne in the Alpes-Maritimes département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région of southeastern France, and Cannes.

Charlie and Juliette stay at the famous Hotel George V, Paris. It is here Meg Ryan's character has her encounters with the supercilious concierge played by Laurent Spielvogel and it is in the lobby she is robbed by a Parisian pickpocket played by François Cluzet.

Other scenes around Paris include numerous shots of the Eiffel Tower, driving past the Louvre Pyramid, and Meg Ryan's character using a phonebooth near the Arc de Triomphe. There are a number of street scenes shot on the Rive Droite. There is a corner in Montmartre where rue Paul Albert and rue Feutrier meet and Kline's character throws money on the sidewalk and later Ryan's character picks it up.

The last scene in Paris is at the Gare Saint-Lazare train station where Kevin Kline's character is being chased by police inspector Jean-Paul Cardon (Jean Reno) while trying to board a train south to Cannes. One of the 'errors' in the film is that the train to Cannes does not leave from this station but rather from Gare de Lyon. (The trains from Gare Saint-Lazare go north towards Normandy.)

In the small French village of Valbonne (about 15 minutes north of Cannes) Kevin Kline's character gets into a fight with his brother in the main village square in front of the Hotel les Armoiries (a 17th century building). There are also other scenes of the town in the film.

There are scenes of a train station and the vineyards of the small hamlet of La Ravelle which is part of the town of Paulhaguet in the Haute-Loire département in the Auvergne région of south central France.

In Cannes there are outside shots of the Carlton Hotel where the four main characters are staying. There are interior scenes of the lobby and the brasserie used for morning breakfasts. Scenes include the beach in front of the hotel along with the adjacent waterfront - in particular the Cartier boutique on the next corner.

Remakes

The film Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) starring Kajol and her husband Ajay Devgan is a remake of French Kiss with a slightly different ending. The Malayalam film, Vettam (2004), by Priyadarsan and the Bengali film, Mon Mane Na, by Sujit Guha are also adaptations of French Kiss. A Telugu movie by name Dongata starring Jagapathi babu and Soundarya directed by Kodi Rama Krishna was basically inspired from this film, but adapted to Telugu Nativity.





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "French Kiss (film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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