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 (as Susan Anbeh)
Renée Humphrey	...	Lilly
Michael Riley	...	M. Campbell
Laurent Spielvogel	...	Concierge
Victor Garrivier	...	Octave
Élisabeth 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:

breakup | plant cutting | frenchman | blonde | infidelity | 

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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:

Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£2,233,239 (United Kingdom), 17 November 1995

Gross USA:

$38,896,854

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$101,982,854

Company Credits

Production Co:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Prufrock Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Kate (Meg Ryan) and Luc (Kevin Kline) are first talking in their room at Cannes, the French song "Verlaine" is playing. The track's lyrics include the wording "les sanglots longues des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur d'un langueur monotone" which translate into English as "the long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor". These words are from a poem called "Verlaine", and had been used in 1944 to form the code phrases that alerted the Resistance to the Allied invasion of France, and were depicted in the earlier epic World War II movie The Longest Day (1962).

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Goofs

When Luc and Kate are taking of from YYZ (Toronto Pearson airport) on their way to Paris, we see outside the windows vast expanses of farm or forest land just at the end of the runway. There are only mass urban spaces, ie: buildings and major roads at the end of any of the runways at YYZ. Also, while the aircraft is taxing to the runway we see structures at the airport that do not exist at YYZ.

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Quotes

Kate: Do you think you could urinate with someone standing behind you?
Con-man: I think I could manage it. Are you going to be the someone?

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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 The Bourne Identity (2002)

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Soundtracks

Les Yeux Ouverts
French Adaptation of "Dream A Little Dream Of Me"
Performed by The Beautiful South (as Beautiful South)
Written by Fabian Andre, Wilbur Schwandt and Gus Kahn
Adaptation by Brice Homs, Korin Ternovtzeff
Courtesy of Go! Discs Ltd.

User Reviews

Cute film

A Francophile will probably like this film. I did. Meg Ryan plays a woman who's on the verge of marrying a Canadian, so she's denounced her American citizenship. She's also afraid of flying so she stays home while her fiance goes to Paris on business. Things take a turn for the worse when he calls, saying he's met the woman of his dreams and he's staying in France.

Frantic to get back her man, she boards a plane. Next to her sits a French thief, beautifully played by Kevin Kline, who has problems of his own, most notably how to smuggle a diamond necklace out of the country.

It's a character-driven plot that Cary Grant would have loved - two people who are seemingly so "repelled" by each other but all they need are the right elements to fall in love. I'm generally not a fan of the romantic-comedy, but the French setting sucked me in as did a supporting role played by the always excellent Jean Reno.

As for the authenticity of Kline's accent, I had a good friend from France who claimed it was "formidable." So there.

Very entertaining and worth a watch.

Want more French choices? Try "Frantic" with Harrison Ford, it's Hitchcockian; "Green Card," who can resist Depardieu?; and my all-time favorite Meg Ryan film "Addicted to Love." It's a great black comedy and it has the sizzlingly sexy Tcheky Karyo. "C'est magnifique!"