French Kiss (1995)

A woman flies to France to confront her straying fiancé, but gets into trouble when the charming crook seated next to her uses her for smuggling.

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writer:

Adam Brooks

Stars:

Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meg Ryan	...	Kate
Kevin Kline	...	Luc Teyssier
Timothy Hutton	...	Charlie
Jean Reno	...	Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon
François Cluzet	...	Bob
Suzan Anbeh	...	Juliette
Renée Humphrey	...	Lilly
Michael Riley	...	M. Campbell
Laurent Spielvogel	...	Concierge
Victor Garrivier	...	Octave
Elisabeth Commelin	...	Claire (as Elizabeth Commelin)
Julie Leibowitch	...	Olivia
Miquel Brown	...	Sgt. Patton
Louise Deschamps	...	Jean-Paul's Girl
Olivier Curdy	...	Jean-Paul's Boy

Storyline

Kate and Charlie have a perfect life planned out before them: buying a house, marriage, kids, the whole works. Kate's fear of flying keeps her in Canada while Charlie goes to Paris for a medical convention. While there Charlie is smitten by the lovely Juliette. He calls off the wedding with Kate and she nervously boards a plane to get him back. She ends up sitting next to the petty French thief Luc Teyssier. He hides a stolen necklace and smuggled grape vine in her bag to get it through customs. Her bag is stolen, the necklace apparently lost, and Kate and Luc head to Cannes -- Luc to find the necklace and Kate get Charlie back. Along the way, Kate and Luc begin having feelings for each other -- which change the course of their lives.

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Plot Keywords:

thief | cannes | canada | smuggling | fear of flying | 

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Taglines:

Kate's stuck in a place where anything can happen with a guy who'll make sure that it does

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, language and drug references

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

5 May 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Paris Match

Filming Locations:

American Embassy - 2 Avenue Gabriel, Paris 8, Paris, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£2,233,239 (UK) (17 November 1995)

Gross:

£2,934,344 (UK) (15 December 1995)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Prufrock Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Kate and Luc are first talking in their room at Cannes, the song "Verlaine" is playing; its lyrics include the words "Les sanglots longues des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur d'un langueur monotone" ("The long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor"). These words from a poem by Verlaine had been used in 1944 to form the code phrases that alerted the Resistance to the Allied invasion of France, as depicted in The Longest Day.

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Goofs

While Luc is driving the stolen Citroen XM he activates the horn by pressing the centre of the steering wheel, but this model of car has the horn button on the end of the indicator stalk.

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Quotes

Kate: Do you believe in love? The kind that lasts forever?
Luc: I loved my mother.
Kate: No, everybody loves their mother. Even people who hate their mothers love their mothers. The question is, one man meant for one woman. That is the question.
Luc: But it is not an interesting question. It is the question of a little girl who believes in fairy tales.

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Crazy Credits

Near the end of the credits, we hear the voices of Kate and Luc. They talk, and then he sings the song "Beyond the Sea" en français.

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Connections

Referenced in Game K N B: Episode dated 3 March 2007 (2007)

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Soundtracks

"La Vie En Rose"
Performed by Louis Armstrong
Written by Édith Piaf, Louiguy, and Mack David
Courtesy of MCA Records

User Reviews

Delightful romantic comedy, this Frenchman's a charmer

This is a really cute little romantic comedy. The story revolves around a young history teacher, Kate, who's afraid of flying but forces herself to hop on a plane for Paris to try and win back her fiancé, Charlie, who has dumped her for a gorgeous French woman. However, her seat mate on the plane happens to be a charming French crook named Luc, who uses the unsuspecting Kate to smuggle his stolen diamond necklace for him. Then, casting himself as an expert in affairs of the heart, he resolves to help Kate win back her man, later complicated by the fact that he falls for her himself.

Their adventures across France, from Paris to Cannes, in pursuit of the fiancé and his new girlfriend, make for some pretty amusing scenes. The plot is livened up by the repercussions of Luc's larcenous tricks, little sub-plots with a fellow con artist and a cop who owes him a favour. My sole complaint with this movie is a couple of unnecessary f-words and a fair bit of profanity, especially on Kate's part (taking the Lord's name in vain), reflective of the screenwriters' laziness in avoiding clever dialogue in these scenes.

Meg Ryan is her usual cute, bubbly, rather ditsy self in the role of Kate and Timothy Hutton is suitably obnoxious and despicable as Charlie, the fiancé who dumped her. However, the real star of this film is Kevin Kline, who puts genuine charm into the role of this rakishly endearing thief, Luc, and demonstrates an extremely credible French accent, in my opinion. His entire persona here makes it difficult to believe that Kline isn't really French. He must have had a fantastic language coach! Also, there is great on screen chemistry between Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.

It's a delightful, light hearted film, a good date movie, and not necessarily just a chick flick as my husband enjoyed it too.