My Best Friend's Girl (France, 1983):
(La Femme de Mon Pote)

Far more tepid than Bertrand Blier's usually tumultuous waters. Parisian vamp Isabelle Huppert, introduced ass-first in a rumpled chalet bed, camps out in the Alps and proceeds to dismantle the rock-solid friendship of jock Thierry Lhermitte and pudgy nightclub disc jockey Coluche. Blithely scissoring her gams, vacuuming in lacy camisoles and soothing headaches with blowjobs, Huppert is another walking-breathing-fucking Blier essay on the inscrutable female, whose freedom of movement between the two douches mystifies the male eye as much as her sisters Miou-Miou, Brigitte Fosey and Carole Laure did in previous outings. The snowed-in setting is used as a kind of edge-of-the-world stage for a sexual politics exploration that never comes -- by the time Huppert's oft- tagged "tramp" takes off with another lout to leave the pals sighing in the cold, the movie has become more obtuse than outrageous. Further rounding off any interesting edges with blandly smooth camerawork and a gaggle of easy- listening American singles, Blier keeps only the flimsiest of sitcom motors running. (Two Guys, a Girl and a Ski Resort?) Gérard Blach co-wrote the screenplay with Blier.

--- Fernando F. Croce

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