Valentin Valentin

"Valentín Valentín", directed by Pascal Thomas, is a charming, breezy, film meditation on apartment buildings and their denizens, love requited and love lost, and murder. Dame Geraldine Chaplin is marvellous in a supporting role as a happy -if sometimes obnoxious- alcoholic, and all of the French cast deliver top-notch performances. In contrast to Chabrol's unrelentingly dark satire of French class conflict in "La Cérémonie" -another Rendell adaptation-, Thomas emphasizes discrete moments of joy through art -drawing, song, the playing of instruments, dance-; the sometimes reticent but real solidarity between neighbours and friends; and the melancholy of what might have been. Some moments of the film have a hint of Woody Allen, others resonate with the strong French film tradition of light but sharply-pointed social comedy. A delightful divertimento, with a murder mystery to bot!