Après Vous







When a good Samaritan named Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) saves Louis (José Garcia) from killing himself, he begins to feel strangely responsible for the suicidal man's continued well-being. Desperate to help him find happiness, Antoine secretly sets out to play cupid and locate Louis's ex-girlfriend Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain)—he doesn't know that she was the one who drove Louis to despair—and ends up falling for her himself. Three strangers brought together by fate are about to learn that there is a fine line between helping others and helping yourself! A romantic comedy directed and co-written by Pierre Salvadori.

Après Vous • by director/co-writer Pierre Salvadori

In the beginning of Après Vous, Antoine, the main character, chances upon Louis, a man who is trying to kill himself. Antoine saves him and finds himself having to help Louis to reconstruct his life.

First Step: Find the woman who is at the heart of his new friend's misery, and try to push her back into his arms.

First complication: He falls in love with that woman, and she falls in love with him…

Things are getting more and more complicated, so very soon, Antoine is confronted with this terrible question: "Am I a good person?"

No matter what you do, or don't do, this moment will come, knocking at your door: "Am I a good person?" Pretty nasty question to try and answer. If you are honest, that is. Scary stuff.

Here is a little quiz, composed in order to help and guide you through this bad moral maze.

1. You cross the park after dark and stumble upon the following scene: A stranger is standing on top of a suitcase under a big tree, with a rope tied around his neck. What do you do?
a. Save him
b. You are late for a hot date you have been trying to get for months, so you decide to give the man his space and respect his decision
c. You don't like asking yourself too many complex questions (and you are late for a hot date you have been trying to get for months), so you look at the scene and ask yourself: "Isn't it a funny time, and place, to practice climbing?"

2. You have saved this man's life, but he has nowhere to go. What do you do?
a. Insist he comes and stays with you
b. Give him some money, the address of a decent hotel, and flee the scene quickly
c. Give him the keys to your old flat, where your ex lives now with her new "boyfriend" and walk him to the place to make sure he doesn't get lost

3. You search for the woman who was the love of your new dependent's life, and obviously the cause for his unimaginable pain. When you do find her, to your horror she finds you irresistible, and you find her gorgeous too. What do you do?
a. Bang your head against a concrete wall 17 times
b. Try and be decent, focus your attention on her physical defects, and do all that is necessary to get her back with her former beau
c. Try and be decent, focus your attention on her physical defects, only to realise that they are the most charming things which make her who she is

4. You are in a hotel room with this fabulous woman, with whom you are about to spend the night. What do you do?
a. Just before it's too late, you pick up the phone and call an ex-girlfriend, who is clearly still in love with you, so she can remind you "what an untrustworthy and shameless coward you are, a pathetic, egocentric and cruel man, who always, but always, escapes responsibility, and who should try for once in his life to do the right thing"
b. Just before it's too late, you pick up the phone and call an ex-girlfriend, who is clearly still in love with you, and rush to her place
c. Just before it's too late, you pick up the phone and call an ex-girlfriend, who is clearly still in love with you, and suggest she joins the two of you in room number 128

5. You have spent a dream of a night with this lovely woman. But then you wake up with the break of first light, consumed by guilt and remorse. What do you do?
a. Face your new friend, tell him the truth and bang your head against a concrete wall 17 times
b. Face your new friend, tell him the truth and ask for his forgiveness
c. Face your new friend, tell him the truth and ask for his understanding

SCORING: A = 3 points B = 2 points C = 1 point

Between 15 and 13 points
Everybody likes you and thinks you are a good person. The truth is that you are just insecure and lacking confidence in yourself. If you are charitable, it is because you need people to love you. As a matter of fact, you are narcissistic and vain, and you absolutely must see this movie, which highlights the purest of human values, such as selflessness and sacrifice.

Between 13 and 8 points
You are very ambivalent—it is human after all. You will recognise yourself in this movie, and in the main characters, who, at times, are driven towards acts of total mediocrity, but who are also allowed moments of greatness. Can we help someone and betray him, or her, at the same time? Can we love someone and betray him, or her, at the same time? These questions still intrigue you and you will find in this movie all the elements for complex (and ambivalent!) answers, as well as some beautiful landscapes.

Between 8 and 6 points
You are either someone who is really mean, or simply a cynic. If you are any of these two, you should go and see this movie— it would make you feel good. It would make you feel big! You could either make fun of it during its long 115 minutes and keep ridiculing it for the rest of the substantial period of its successful release; or you have the option to lacerate, using a knife or a razor, the photos of the movie's lead actors which are printed in this very magazine.

5 points
You are a maniac with a serious compulsive obsession to do with the letter C, which you must always encircle with a red pen the minute you spot it (in papers, posters, billboards, other people's book covers, bank notes, etc…). In this case, it is highly recommended that you don't go and see this movie. It is with subtitles.