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

About 45 minutes into the film when a distraught Kate (Meg Ryan) is seen speaking to Charlie's mother from a street payphone in Paris, just as Kate says "I know I will triumph," the shot switches to an angle that includes the Parisian landmark "Arc de Triomphe" in the background. Triomphe is French for 'triumph'. Clearly a Lawrence Kasdan in-joke.

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Goofs

When Kate and Luc are in room as a child, her shows her a class project. After she drinks the wine, she say she can taste the lavender from the brown bottle. In the previous shot the bottle is clear.

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Quotes

Kate: Hi there. C'est moi.
Concierge: [coolly] Welcome back, Madame, to the Georges V.
Kate: Huh... it's incredible how you do that. The words come out - "Welcome back" - but the meaning is completely different. What's the deal, is that a French thing or a concierge thing?
Concierge: As Madame wishes.
Kate: You did it again. Tell me something, because I just... I don't get it. Do you enjoy being that rude? Because when you do that, it just gets underneath my skin, and it makes me... completely... INSANE!

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Crazy Credits

One of the crew members is credited as "Big Cheese."

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Connections

Featured in The Directors: The Films of Lawrence Kasdan (2001)

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Soundtracks

Flambee Montalbanaise
Performed by Gus Viseur et son orchestre
Written by Guy Viseur
Courtesy of Fremeaux & Associes, S.A.

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.