Nathalie Baye illuminates any film she cares to grace - as do so many French actresses, Isabelle Carre, Sabine Azema, Carole Bouquet, Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain, etc - and this time around for good measure she has great support from the likes of Bulle Ogier, Audrey Tatou (pre- Amelie and relatively unknown) and Mathilde Seignier. In short it's a terrific ensemble piece revolving around a beauty parlour and the Christmas holiday respectively. Even with a gun to my head I couldn't pick out a bad performance and writer-director Toni Marshall is going to have a hard time eclipsing this one. It was more than deserving of the 'Best Film' Cesar it was awarded and in this case we can truly say it was champagne for cesar. 9/10
Review of Venus Beauty Institute
