Pauline Detective | Review

Pauline at the Beach: Fitoussi’s Breezy Caper Good for a Laugh

Director Marc Fitoussi seems inclined toward breezy-haired, bauble headed gamines that get jostled around like seaweed in unpredictable waters. While his 2010 film Copacabana was a notable comedy starring Isabelle Huppert as the comic foil (rather than the ‘straight man’ for once), his latest reunites him with Sandrine Kiberlain, who starred in his 2007 debut, La Vie D’Artist. It’s quite easy to see why he’s attracted such talents as he seems to have a knack for an offbeat drollery with actresses that seem unconventional leads in a comedic vehicle. Inconsequential? Perhaps. But there’s an undeniable delight in watching his funny ladies as they cross in and out of slight frippery. While his features are hard to get a hold of in the US, possibly because of their very slightness, his latest, like his others, is certainly worth seeking out as an assay into an entertaining ninety minutes.

Pauline (Sandrine Kilberlain), is the editor-in-chief of a tabloid-ish crime rag called Le Nouveau Detective, and life seems to be going swell. But no sooner has she decided to give up therapy due to her positive new outlook, when her handsome boyfriend dumps her, leading her into a slight depression. Her sister, Jeanne (Audrey Lamy), is a television star with a major role in a hot new series, and demands that Pauline join her and husband Wilfried (Antoine Chappey) on their vacation on a seaside resort near Genoa. But since Pauline’s addition is last minute, she’s stuck sharing a room with a crusty old writer (Michele Moretti), who seems a bit too snoopy for Pauline’s taste. Getting her own room and engaging in hostile interactions with the handsome lifeguard (Claudio Santamaria), they’re informed that a serial killer has been killing women in nearby areas. But Pauline’s addiction to amateur sleuthing really kicks into high drive when the old woman she’d shared a room with mysteriously disappears, and then we’re off through a series of non-sequiturs and red herrings. And, a little romance.

The color palette of Pauline Detective is remarkably vivid, and a goldilocked Kiberlain, looking fantastic, has an overabundance of solid colored wardrobes that mimic the beach side furnishing of the swank resort. Pauline is the visual counterpart of any number of murder mystery heroines ranging anywhere from a handful of modern day incarnations to that of Agatha Christie’s Poiroit and Miss Marple (mentioned directly in the film), but, as Fitoussi reveals, without many dastardly deeds actually happening.

Those familiar with director Pascal Thomas’ adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels (his 2007 film Towards Zero is available in the US, but several films starring Catherine Frot and Andre Dussollier as a crime solving team are still woefully nonexistent) should be reminded of his work as Fitoussi adopts a similar droll tone mixed into hints of morbidity.

For those in search of meaty suspense and multiple twists, Pauline Detective may seem rather disappointing (and, oddly, another similar title from 2013 that stars both Huppert and Kiberlain, Tip Top, is much more satisfactory and experimental). Nevertheless, Kiberlain is as engaging as ever here as an observant yet overly imaginative woman that would much rather fantasize about other people’s problems than bother to directly deal with her own.

Reviewed as part of 2014’s My French Film Festival, January 2 to February 17.