Paul & Paulette Take a Bath, 2024.
Directed by Jethro Massey.
Starring Marie Benati, Jérémie Galiana, Fanny Cottençon, Gilles Graveleau, Laurence Vaissière, Margot Josepth.
SYNOPSIS:
An American in Paris meets someone with a morbid curiosity for the darker side of the city.
Jethro Massey’s unconventional romance film, Paul & Paulette Take a Bath, delves into the darker recesses of Parisian history and human nature. The film centres on Paul (Jérémie Galiana), a young American office worker and keen photographer, who meets Paulette (Marie Benati), a libertine with a taste for the darker side of life.
The pair embark on “adventuneering” trips around Paris, visiting places with historic meaning and re-enacting scenes of notorious crimes from bygone eras. For Paul, this game is a way of getting closer to Paulette. For her, it is an escape from a painful breakup. As their road trip approaches the more recent past, it becomes increasingly uncomfortable, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. The notorious bathtub in Hitler and Eva Braun’s Munich apartment captured by American photographer Lee Miller in 1945 – recently dramatised in the 2023 Kate Winslet starring movie Lee – is also part of the couple’s tour through morbid curiosities.
Yet, amisdt the horror, the script also finds joy in a shared wonder of the weird nature of human existence and an unflinching look through the lens.
Shot with a certain new-wave sensibility, the sightseeing journey pays homage to Paris’ cinematic spectacle while also highlighting a core theme of the film: the “mundanity of evil.” The film argues that reminders of the terrible past are everywhere, and that a constant reappraisal of history is essential to prevent these evils from being forgotten. This point is underscored by the script’s emphasis on the Nazi occupation, a topic that some audiences may find difficult to take in a comedy, even one termed ‘dark’.
While the treatment of Paul’s boss and lover, Valerie (Laurence Vaissière), nicknamed “Goebbels” by the office staff, may seem unduly harsh, the film intends to make the audience somewhat uncomfortable. The shadows of the past are everywhere; the fact that a reminder of this can come up at any moment, even in an everyday office conversation, is essential to understanding the profundity of the piece.
When the two friends leave Paris to visit Paulette’s parents in Stuttgart, this darkness becomes more personal. The film, fuelled by a compelling interest in the grim aspects of life, is haunting in its dwelling on these darker aspects. However, it also has a life-affirming character. As the director has stated, he believes that great friendships are underrepresented in film, and with this thoughtful and compelling piece, he helps to put that right.
The film features two excellent performances from its leads, who really imbue the movie with a strong sense of humanity and compassion. The movie could have been quite a risk without such confident and likeable leads, but as it is it works as a story highlighting the need for understanding.
The musical choices within the film are also well made, with composer Marc Tassel’s work complementing the odd tonalities in the film. While tragedy and tumult is never far away, there is also a playfulness at work, too.
Overall, the film makes a strong impression as a call to not only remember the pains of the past, but to also feel them in all their power.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk
