The Valet | |
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![]() French theatrical release poster | |
French | La Doublure |
Directed by | Francis Veber |
Written by | Francis Veber |
Produced by | Patrice Ledoux |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Fraisse |
Edited by | Georges Klotz |
Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Countries | |
Language | French |
Budget | $28.3 million |
Box office | $29 million [2] |
The Valet (French : La Doublure, lit. 'The Stand-In') is a 2006 comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber and starring Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, Daniel Auteuil and Kristin Scott Thomas. The film is about a parking valet who is enlisted to pretend to be the lover of a famous fashion model in order to deflect attention from her relationship with a married businessman. The film enjoyed box office success in France and the United States. [3] [4]
The Valet was remade as the 2009 Hindi film Do Knot Disturb , which in turn inspired the 2014 Punjabi film Disco Singh and the 2016 Bengali movie Haripad Bandwala . An English-language remake, The Valet , was released on 20 May 2022 by Hulu.
Pierre Levasseur is a wealthy married Parisian executive involved in an affair with top model Elena Simonsen. When a paparazzo catches the two of them departing their secret hideaway and their photograph is published on the front page of the local newspaper, Pierre's wife Christine confronts him. He claims he has no idea who the woman is, and that she must have been a companion of the man seen walking beside them. Fully aware of Pierre's difficult situation, Elena gives him an ultimatum: he must choose between her and his wife. Because Christine is the majority shareholder of his business, Pierre is in danger of losing his fortune if he divorces her. His lawyer Maître Foix advises him the only way to resolve the issue is to find the anonymous man in the photo and have him pose as Elena's lover.
The anonymous man is the hapless François Pignon, a parking valet who is in love with bookstore owner Émilie. Deep in debt and worried about her business, she has turned down his marriage proposal because she believes she has too much on her plate, and thinks of him as a brother. Meanwhile, Maître Foix locates François and offers him money to let Elena move in with him and pretend they are a couple. François agrees and asks for 32,450 euros: the exact amount of money that will pay off Émilie's debts. Meanwhile, Elena demands 20 million euros to participate in the sham relationship, a sum she keeps as a deposit that she will return to Pierre when he leaves his wife. Dislodging his friend and roommate Richard, Elena moves in with François, who is overwhelmed by the situation, but the two quickly become friends.
Christine is not fooled and plays the situation for all it is worth, making her husband jealous of François and Elena's living situation. Émilie, too, is confused and upset to see François and Elena together. Eventually, Elena explains the situation to Émilie, who is grateful for the funding François requested for her, and she acquires a newfound respect for him and eventually accepts François' proposal.
In the meantime, Christine secretly tape records Pierre saying he has no intention of leaving her for Elena and offering to take his wife on a second honeymoon. When she sends the tape to Elena, Elena decides to leave Pierre. She notifies Pierre of her leaving by sending François to meet him in her car at a secret rendezvous point. François conveys the news to Pierre who angrily responds that he has voided the 20 million euro transfer. François then tells Pierre that Elena anticipated this of him and indicates that she never wanted the money implying that Elena leaves the relationship with a clean split. François then walks away from the limo as a cross-dressing prostitute approaches Pierre and the two are photographed by a paparazzo.
François Pignon also is the name of the protagonist in screenwriter-director Francis Veber's films Les Compères (1983), The Dinner Game (1998) and The Closet (2001), although the characters are not the same person. The film also makes a reference to The Dinner Game during a scene. François gives his father, André, a corkscrew as a birthday present. André then mentions that he has even been invited to dinner to talk about his passion and collection of corkscrews.
The film was shot on location in Boulogne-Billancourt, Neuilly-sur-Seine, and Puteaux, all located in the département of Hauts-de-Seine.
Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the film "a delectable comedy" and added, "Francis Veber ... is a master of the modern French farce. And this film has the same tight structure and carefully plotted surprises and reversals as his earlier comedies The Dinner Game and The Closet. These movies are wonderfully frothy contrivances, built with traditional machinery from models that have been around for centuries ... Because its structure and the targets of its satire—vanity, greed and lust—hark back to Molière, The Valet offers a reassuring vision of a fixed social order, bourgeois to the core, in which virtue is rewarded and hubris exposed." [5]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "an enjoyable farce, with lots of laughs and a strong cast." He observed, "At 80 minutes long, it's that rare case of a short film that should have been longer. And that's its problem: It really should have been longer. This is not just a matter of wishing the pleasure might have been extended. The comparative shortness is indicative, rather, of the movie's sole flaw: Veber doesn't know how to end his movie. True, he knows how the audience would like the story to resolve, and he does get there. But he doesn't find a mechanically interesting way to do it. After putting this wonderful machinery in place, he more or less just pulls the plug. He ties things up quickly with a couple of pleasant but lackluster scenes and gets out, leaving the movie feeling truncated. Fine. If he couldn't come up with a great ending, at least he didn't belabor it, and along the way The Valet is a total pleasure." [6]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said, "Making people laugh is the specialty of the house where French writer-director Francis Veber is concerned, and he is awfully good at it. A complete master of cinematic farce, Veber's latest venture ... makes creating deliciously funny comedy look a lot easier than it has any right to ... While some of the sight gags on view in The Valet have roots that go back to the great silent clowns, Veber's innate understanding of what makes people laugh, his gift for impeccable timing and for getting his cast to work together like interlocking parts of a fine machine, are difficult to resist." [7]
Lisa Nesselson of Variety said, "Even though you can hear the clockwork mechanism ticking, comic craftsman Francis Veber ... has tooled another bigscreen timepiece with a fun premise and satisfying quotient of laughs." [8]
The film was released in France and Belgium on March 20, 2006. It was shown at the Moscow Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, ShoWest, and the Cleveland International Film Festival before going into limited release in the US on April 20, 2007. The film eventually grossed $1,926,800 in the US and $27,400,068 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $29,326,868. [9]
Dany Boon was nominated for the César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Alice Taglioni won the NRJ Ciné Award for Actress of the Year.
The film was remade in Hindi as Do Knot Disturb in 2009, starring Govinda, Sushmita Sen, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta. Do Knot Disturb later inspired the 2014 Punjabi movie Disco Singh and the 2016 Bengali movie Haripad Bandwala .
An English-language remake of The Valet has long been in the works. DreamWorks bought the rights to an English-language remake soon after the film's release in 2006, with the Farrelly Brothers attached to direct and Allan Loeb attached as the writer and executive producer. [10] However, nothing came of this project. In 2014 Eugenio Derbez gained the rights to a remake. [11] In 2018 Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher were hired to write and direct the film, which is planned to star Derbez. [12] In 2021, it is finally being remade for Hulu release. [13]
Francis Paul Veber is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, and playwright. He has written and directed both French and American films. Nine French-language films with which he has been involved, as either writer or director or both, have been remade as English-language Hollywood films: Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire, L'emmerdeur, La Cage aux Folles, Le Jouet, Les Compères, La chèvre, Les Fugitifs, Le dîner de cons and La Doublure. He also wrote the screenplay for My Father the Hero, the 1994 American remake of the French-language film Mon père, ce héros.
Overboard is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, written by Leslie Dixon, starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and produced by Roddy McDowall, who also co-stars alongside Edward Herrmann and Katherine Helmond. Its plot follows a demeaning, wealthy socialite who suffers amnesia after falling from her yacht while vacationing on the Oregon coast, only to be taken in by a working-class carpenter whom she mistreated.
The Closet is a 2001 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber. It is about a man who pretends to be homosexual to keep his job, with absurd and unexpected consequences.
The Dinner Game is a 1998 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, adapted from his play Le Dîner de Cons. It became that year's top-grossing French film at the French box office.
Le Magnifique is a French/Italian international co-production released in 1973, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset and Vittorio Caprioli that was directed by Philippe de Broca. Le Magnifique is a slapstick spoof of B-series espionage films and novels and the men who write them.
Eugenio González Derbez is a Mexican actor and comedian. He has appeared in many films and television series including The Book of Life, The Angry Birds Movie 2 and The Secret Life of Pets.
Gad Elmaleh is a Moroccan-Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who achieved fame in France, Morocco and the United States. He is best known in the French-speaking world and more recently in the United States.
Les Compères is a 1983 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, and starring Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Richard and Anny Duperey. The film had 4,847,229 admissions in France.
Que la fête commence... is a 1975 French film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and starring Philippe Noiret. It is a historical drama set during the 18th century French Régence centring on the Breton Pontcallec Conspiracy.
Do Knot Disturb is a 2009 Indian comedy film directed by David Dhawan. The film is a remake of the 2006 French film The Valet. The film stars Govinda, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Sushmita Sen, Ranvir Shorey, Sohail Khan and Rajpal Yadav. It released on 2 October 2009, and received generally positive reviews upon release, though failed to make an impact at the box office. It was an inspiration for the 2014 Punjabi comedy Disco Singh which was also remade in Bengali as Haripada Bandwala.
Le Dîner de Cons is a French comedy play by Francis Veber.
L'emmerdeur is a 1973 French-Italian black comedy film starring Jacques Brel, appearing in his tenth and final feature film. Directed by Édouard Molinaro and co-starring Lino Ventura, Caroline Cellier, and Jean-Pierre Darras, L'emmerdeur is an adaptation of Francis Veber's 1971 play Le contrat.
Les Fugitifs is a French 1986 comedy film, directed by Francis Veber. It was remade in 1989 as Three Fugitives, also directed by Veber.
Pantelion Films is an American film production company that was created in 2010 and based in Santa Monica, California. The studio's goal is to bring wider theatrical distribution of movies aimed at Latino audiences. It is backed by TelevisaUnivision and Lionsgate. It has made theatrical relationships with movie exhibition chains including Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theatres, Cinemex, and Cinemark. The studio's first film was 2011's From Prada to Nada, which Lionsgate and Grupo Televisa announced it had commissioned for a television series that did not materialize in 2012.
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How to Be a Latin Lover is a 2017 American comedy film directed by Ken Marino, written by Chris Spain and Jon Zack and stars Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Raphael Alejandro, Raquel Welch, Rob Riggle, Rob Huebel, Rob Corddry, Renée Taylor, Linda Lavin, Kristen Bell, and Rob Lowe. This was also Welch's final film before her death in 2023. The film follows a man who has spent his whole life married to a rich old woman, and must learn to make it on his own when she kicks him out. It was released on April 28, 2017 by Pantelion Films and grossed $62.6 million worldwide.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a 2019 American adventure comedy film directed by James Bobin. It is a live-action adaptation of the Nick Jr. animated television series Dora the Explorer as well as the Nickelodeon animated series Dora and Friends. The film stars Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, with Danny Trejo as the voice of Boots. The titular Lost City of Gold is based on the legendary Inca city, Paititi. Dora and the Lost City of Gold was produced by Paramount Players and Nickelodeon Movies in association with Walden Media, MRC and Burr! Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Overboard is a 2018 American romantic comedy film directed by Rob Greenberg. The screenplay was written by Greenberg, Bob Fisher, and Leslie Dixon. The film stars Eugenio Derbez, Anna Faris, Eva Longoria, and John Hannah. The film is a remake of the original 1987 film, reversing the role of the lead character. The film portrays a struggling, working-class single mother who convinces a rich playboy with amnesia that they are married.
The Valet is a 2022 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wong and written by Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg. It is a remake of the French film The Valet (2006) by Francis Veber. It stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving, with Max Greenfield, Betsy Brandt, Marisol Nichols, Amaury Nolasco, Carmen Salinas, Noemi Gonzalez, Armando Hernández, Carlos Santos, Ravi Patel, and John Pirruccello in supporting roles. The film is dedicated to Salinas, who died in 2021. The plot follows a parking valet (Derbez) who is hired to date an actress (Weaving) trying to cover up an affair. It was released on Hulu on May 20, 2022. It received generally positive reviews from critics.