A Dark, Emotional Musical About the ‘Perfect Guy’

Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s effortlessly charming musical “Jeanne and the Perfect Guy” is likely to remind you of the classic “Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” and not just because its leading man, Mathieu Demy, is the son of “Umbrellas’ ” late director, Jacques Demy.

Ducastel and Martineau’s songs, like those of ‘Umbrellas’ ” Michel Legrand, have a sweetness and buoyancy, and flow naturally out of everyday life. Similarly, its stars are not trained singers and dancers, which makes for a refreshing lack of slickness.

For all its celebration of romance and young love, however, “Jeanne and the Perfect Guy” is inevitably a much darker film. When Jeanne (Virginie Ledoyen), a receptionist at a chic Paris travel agency, locks eyes with Demy’s Olivier aboard a Metro train, she knows in a flash she’s at last found “the perfect guy.” A liberated modern woman, Jeanne is upfront about the considerable “research” she’s done in her quest for Mr. Right; “if the sex is no good, it can’t be love,” she remarks to Olivier.

Olivier, who may be a student, is more boyish than the debonair but ultra-bourgeois executive (Frederic Gorny) or the hunky messenger (Laurent Arcaro) who have been pursuing Jeanne at work, but her newest lover drives her wild.

After an ecstatic night of love, Olivier levels with Jeanne: a drug user some six years earlier, he has tested HIV-positive. She responds easily that it’s not a problem for her because he used a condom. Their romance blossoms, but you sense that Olivier fears that time is running out for him. Ledoyen, one of the most promising of the new generation of French actresses, and Demy, who has the dark, expressive eyes of his mother, director Agnes Varda, are most appealing and poised.

“Jeanne and the Perfect Guy” is not the first film musical to play the exhilaration of the musical form against the specter of AIDS, but Ducastel and Martineau develop the contrast with stunning emotional impact, illuminating not only Jeanne and Olivier’s relationship but also AIDS activism in all its impassioned commitment. The poignancy of their romance becomes underlined by the fact that they are both acquainted with Francois (Jacques Bonnaffe), a member of ACT UP, yet are unaware of the coincidence, which proves to be crucial.

The way in which Ducastel and Martineau bring their story to a conclusion is inspired in its tough-mindedness. American audiences may feel that the film seems dated in that its emphasis on the importance of AIDS awareness is scarcely news, at least in the U.S. (You may also be wondering whether Olivier is in any special treatment program or, for that matter, why he’s still smoking.) Yet, sad to say, “Jeanne and the Perfect Guy,” while avoiding heavy-handed preachiness, will be relevant until there’s a cure for AIDS.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: some sex, nudity; adult themes.

‘Jeanne and the Perfect Guy’

(‘Jeanne et le Garcon Formidable’)

Virginie Ledoyen: Jeanne

Mathieu Demy: Olivier

Jacques Bonnaffe: Francois

Frederic Gorny: Jean-Baptiste

Laurent Arcaro: Messenger[

A Strand Releasing presentation produced by Cyriac Auriol & Pauline Duhault for Les Films du Requin; co-produced by Le Studio Canal Plus, France 2 Cinema, MG Films, Orsans Productions and Pyramide. A musical by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. Cinematographer Mathieu Poirot-Delpech. Editor Sabine Mamou. Costumes Juliette Chanaud. Set decorator Louis Soubrier. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.

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