Rating: 
Summary: Smell my shirt
Review: For those of you who have seen this rather extraordinary romantic thriller noir, my review title is self-explanatory: this is cinema verité for the 21st century. For those of you who haven't, let me note that this begins slowly, so stay with it. You won't regret it.What French director Jacques Audiard has done is create a taunt noir thriller with a romantic subplot intricately woven into the fabric of the main plot, told in the realistic and nonglamorous manner usually seen in films that win international awards. In fact, Sur mes lèvre did indeed win a Cesar (for Emmanuelle Devos) and some other awards. For Audiard character development and delineation are more important than action, yet the action is extremely tense. The romance is of the counter-cultural sort seen in films like, say, Kalifornia (1993) or Natural Born Killer (1994) or the Aussie Kiss or Kill (1997), a genre I call "grunge love on the lam" except that the principles here are not on the road (yet) and still have most of their moral compasses intact. Vincent Cessel and Emmanuelle Devos play the nonglamorous leads, Paul and Carla. Carla is a mousy corporate secretary--actually she's supposed to be mousy, but in fact is intriguing and charismatic and more than a wee bit sexy. But she is inexperienced with men, doesn't dance, is something of a workaholic who lives out a fantasy life home alone with herself. She is partially deaf and adept at reading lips, a talent that figures prominently in the story. She is a little put on by the world and likes to remove her hearing aid or turn it off. When she collapses from overwork her boss suggests she hire an assistant. She hires Paul, who is just out of prison, even though he has no clerical experience. He is filled with the sort of bad boy sex appeal that may recall Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard's Breathless (1959) or even Richard Gere in the American remake from 1983. We get the sense that Carla doesn't realize that she hired him because she found him attractive. When Carla gets squeezed out of credit for a company deal, she gets Paul to help her turn the tables. From there it is but a step to a larger crime. Note that Carla is unconsciously getting Paul to "prove" his love for her (and his virility) by doing what she wants, working for her, appearing in front of her girl friends as her beau, etc. The camera work features tense, off-center closeups so that we see a lot of the action not in the center of our field of vision but to the periphery as in things partially hidden or overheard or seen out of the corner of our eyes. Audiard wants to avoid any sense of a set or a stage. The camera is not at the center of the action, but is a spy that catches just enough of what is going on for us to follow. Additionally, the film is sharply cut so that many scenes are truncated or even omitted and it is left for us to surmise what has happened. This has the effect of heightening the viewer's involvement, although one has to pay attention. Enhancing the staccato frenzy is a sparse use of dialogue. This works especially well for those who do not speak French since the distraction of having to follow the subtitles is kept to a minimum. Powering the film is a script that reveals and explores the unconscious psychological mechanisms of the main characters while dramatizing both their growing attraction to each other and their shared criminal enterprise. But more than that is the on-screen chemistry starkly and subtly developed by both Devos and Cessel. It is pleasing to note that the usual thriller plot contrivances are kept to a minimum here, and the surprises really are surprises. See this for Emmanuelle Devos whose skill and offbeat charisma more than make up for a lack of glamor, and for Vincent Cessel for a testosterone-filled performance so intense one can almost smell the leather jacket.
Rating:
Summary: Smell my shirt
Review: For those of you who have seen this rather extraordinary romantic thriller noir, my review title is self-explanatory: this is cinema verité for the 21st century. For those of you who haven't, let me note that this begins slowly, so stay with it. You won't regret it. What French director Jacques Audiard has done is create a taunt noir thriller with a romantic subplot intricately woven into the fabric of the main plot, told in the realistic and nonglamorous manner usually seen in films that win international awards. In fact, Sur mes lèvre did indeed win a Cesar (for Emmanuelle Devos) and some other awards. For Audiard character development and delineation are more important than action, yet the action is extremely tense. The romance is of the counter-cultural sort seen in films like, say, Kalifornia (1993) or Natural Born Killer (1994) or the Aussie Kiss or Kill (1997), a genre I call "grunge love on the lam" except that the principles here are not on the road (yet) and still have most of their moral compasses intact. Vincent Cessel and Emmanuelle Devos play the nonglamorous leads, Paul and Carla. Carla is a mousy corporate secretary--actually she's supposed to be mousy, but in fact is intriguing and charismatic and more than a wee bit sexy. But she is inexperienced with men, doesn't dance, is something of a workaholic who lives out a fantasy life home alone with herself. She is partially deaf and adept at reading lips, a talent that figures prominently in the story. She is a little put on by the world and likes to remove her hearing aid or turn it off. When she collapses from overwork her boss suggests she hire an assistant. She hires Paul, who is just out of prison, even though he has no clerical experience. He is filled with the sort of bad boy sex appeal that may recall Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard's Breathless (1959) or even Richard Gere in the American remake from 1983. We get the sense that Carla doesn't realize that she hired him because she found him attractive. When Carla gets squeezed out of credit for a company deal, she gets Paul to help her turn the tables. From there it is but a step to a larger crime. Note that Carla is unconsciously getting Paul to "prove" his love for her (and his virility) by doing what she wants, working for her, appearing in front of her girl friends as her beau, etc. The camera work features tense, off-center closeups so that we see a lot of the action not in the center of our field of vision but to the periphery as in things partially hidden or overheard or seen out of the corner of our eyes. Audiard wants to avoid any sense of a set or a stage. The camera is not at the center of the action, but is a spy that catches just enough of what is going on for us to follow. Additionally, the film is sharply cut so that many scenes are truncated or even omitted and it is left for us to surmise what has happened. This has the effect of heightening the viewer's involvement, although one has to pay attention. Enhancing the staccato frenzy is a sparse use of dialogue. This works especially well for those who do not speak French since the distraction of having to follow the subtitles is kept to a minimum. Powering the film is a script that reveals and explores the unconscious psychological mechanisms of the main characters while dramatizing both their growing attraction to each other and their shared criminal enterprise. But more than that is the on-screen chemistry starkly and subtly developed by both Devos and Cessel. It is pleasing to note that the usual thriller plot contrivances are kept to a minimum here, and the surprises really are surprises. See this for Emmanuelle Devos whose skill and offbeat charisma more than make up for a lack of glamor, and for Vincent Cessel for a testosterone-filled performance so intense one can almost smell the leather jacket.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the top ten in 2002
Review: I saw this film twice in a cinema and I really like it. The acting was really good and the plot was very sharp. You have Carla who is disadvantages cos she doesn't know how to let loose and relax. But she still can recognize a good time and she takes on The other guy, who isn't qualified for the job she interviewed him for. The plot twists about how they help (exploit?) eachother are clever and it shows what Paris is really like, not the fake, eternal sunshine spring Paris of Amelie or Le Divorce. I get really tired of films that take place in Paris and glamorize it like it's a vacation commercial, it's another huge metropolis like any other and full of grittiness, and you get a lot of that in this film. It's sexy and violent as hell, but sexy in a different way, kind of like intellectualism turning one on instead of sex. Another great film from France, I recommend it highly. And don't be put off by subtitles, if you let that stop you from watching a movie, you're missing probably 2/3rds of the world's best cinema. "the decalogue" is in Polish, for example.
Rating: 
Summary: beware
Review: if you're susceptible to sea-sickness, don't even attempt this film..the camera jiggles throughout the whole movie..it's almost as bad as if it were watched on 5x fast forward...this director's ploy rates a big fat zero...or an A+ for dizziness...content spoiled.
Rating:
Summary: A finely crafted film
Review: Other reviews will give the basic plot and characters,
I want to add a comment from the view of production design. You are drawn into the close private world of a deaf, not generally socially integrated woman, and you feel her sense of isolation with every shot. These are tight almost claustrophobic shots, you are breathing her air. She hunches over, and avoids directly looking at people and places and most scenes are built by close downward looking shots. The suspense is built scene by scene, everything counts. Closets figure largely, toilets, unfinished apartments, a roof top. It is no accident that these are all marginal spaces, many of which are private and close in to the body of the main character. An absolutely first rate film and a prime example of how design is critical.
Rating:
Summary: Flawless Sight and Sound
Review: READ MY LIPS -- an Official Selection to the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, 2002 Rendezvous with French Cinema, and the 2002 San Francisco International Film Festival -- is nothing short of flawless. Carla Behm (Emmanuelle Devos) plays a frumpy-looking administrative assistant to a real estate development firm, always relegated to second place due to near-deafness which requires her to wear hearing aids. The object of constant ridicule, she spends her work days mildly obsessed with reading the lips of her coworkers ... only to be driven further into seclusion by the nasty things they say about her. Paul Angeli (Vincent Cassel) is an ex-con who lies in order to obtain a position under her supervision -- the parameters of his parole require that he work ... and, through a curious set of circumstances, the two find an undercurrent of attraction to each other that neither is willing to act upon. However, when the two discover that their mutual gifts -- her reading of lips and his planning of the perfect heist -- can suit one another's needs, their relationship takes a wealth of Hitchcockian turns until they find themselves fighting for their lives ... and fighting for one another's heart. A truly wonderful film, READ MY LIPS should be 'read' by all.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime Crime Story with a Delicate Touch...
Review: Read My Lips brings the audience's attention to a young hearing-impaired secretary, Carla (Emmanuelle Devos), who is embarrassed of her handicap, which she hides behind her long unfashionable hair. Unnoticed by her coworkers Carla finds that they frequently use her desk as a trashcan to discard half-empty paper cups. The only time the coworkers seem to recognize her is during the lunch hour when they make crude sexual jokes about her, which they keep in between themselves. However, Carla knows that the coworkers use her for their personal enjoyment as she possess the ability to read lips, which functions as a double edge sword as her knowledge of their thoughts continues to harm her already low self-esteem.
When the anxious, stressed, insecure, and overworked Carla faints in her bosses office he suggests that she hire an aid for herself. Carla contacts a temp agency that sends her Paul (Vincent Cassel) to help her with her daily chores at her job. Paul, an unskilled former convict with no money and very few possessions, gets the job through a number of lies. However, Carla discovers his secret, but instead of turning him in she helps him keep the job. The reason is that Carla desires someone, someone to see her, and this someone happens to be Paul. Feebly Carla attempts to find a way for him to notice her by helping him in various ways, which sends mixed messages, as Paul seems to believe that she is using him for her own needs.
The two main characters begin a slow dance where both are extremely cautious not to step on the others toes. It is an emotionally saturated dance where feelings are constrained as if feelings are a sign of weakness. Symbolically the dance between Carla and Paul revolves around her hearing-impairment, as she is incapable of sending the right signals, yet fully capable of reading the signals. The dance draws both characters into a world of greed, deceit, and murder where they must blindly rely on one another.
Jacques Audiard's direction brings the audience an intelligent thriller with several intriguing subplots enhanced through the terrific use of sound. The sound is an essential part of the film as Carla struggles with her hearing-impairment. The cast offers the audience a good performance, which enhances the psychosexual tension between the characters. In the end, the audience will have experienced a sublime crime story based on a wonderful script, which will bewilder and drive the audience into contemplation.
Rating: 
Summary: Gallic aplomb and working class inventiveness
Review: Somewhat overrated gallic get-back-at-the-bad-boss movie with point of view from partly deaf heroine providing some relief from the obligatory noisy night club scenes muted when she takes out her hearing aid - suspense is mainly due to wondering when the two are going to have it off and - typical of the working class -they do it in a car at the end of the movie when the hero has blood all over his face and we don't get to see anything. The hero also smokes a lot. Worth a watch but nothing to get really excited about.
Rating:
Summary: Unconventional characters and 119 minutes of the unexpected
Review: The editorial review above is pretty much on the money. This is a wonderful head trip for any movie fan familiar with the conventions of office dramas and heist thrillers and a willingness to read subtitles. There were points in this movie when I laughed aloud with delight at the surprising turns of plot and the wonderful, quirky details in the performances, the direction, the soundtrack, and the kinetic camera work and editing. This will not be everybody's idea of entertainment. The two leads are the opposite of glamorous, and the chemistry between them is more about clever calculation and quick thinking than romantic attraction. There is, in fact, no sex and only a hint of nudity. While there are a couple of pretty nasty, brutish types capable of bloody punch-ups and clearly a willingness to kill, the violence in the film does not build up to a gut-clenching crescendo. Instead, the film generates a fair degree of suspense, but of an old-fashioned kind that is more like Hitchcock -- almost elegant. No car chases or explosions. I loved this film. Not having read reviews, I was continually taken by surprise, realizing that every unexpected turn of plot as it came was also completely plausible, until I was so far sucked into the movie that plausibility didn't matter any more. As a companion film, I'd recommend "The Lost Son" (1999), with French actor Daniel Auteuil as a private eye in London who takes on a missing person's case and gets involved with some very nasty people.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and unpredictable French film--
Review: The French film, "Read My Lips," is part crime-thriller and part drama, but the end product is a fascinating story about the relationship that develops between two very odd characters. Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a 35-year-old office worker whose need for a hearing aid causes the office lotharios to have a good laugh at her expense. Her quiet demeanor and plain looks really belie her nature, but no-one bothers to discover what sort of a person she is. Her friends use her as a free babysitter when they're not using her flat for assignations, and her co-workers depend on her to carry projects through, but then they steal the glory. Carla's ability to read lips keeps her one step ahead in the world of office politics, and she quietly keeps this secret talent to herself. Carla's boss tells her to employ an assistant. This is Carla's first independent action, and she immediately shows her hand by requesting and describing the sort of young male assistant she wants. Sleazy ex-con Paul (Vincent Cassel) gets the job, and he is, of course, entirely unsuitable. Before long, Carla is helping Paul--finding him a place to live and covering for his errors. Carla obviously likes Paul, and her naked neediness really seems to spell heartbreak. Is she vunerable and desperate enough to fall--without reservations--for him? The film's plot takes many twists and turns as the relationship between Carla and Paul develops in the most unexpected ways. I didn't know where the film was taking me, but it didn't matter because the characters were fascinating. Carla and Paul aren't exactly 'nice' characters, and sometimes having unpleasant characters as protagonists does not work--I was not fond of "Marie--Baie de Anges," for example. Carla's character doesn't generate a lot of sympathy because she's basically as hard as nails. Yes, she's deaf, but that really isn't a handicap at all for her. It's a handicap for people who know her--they either treat her badly or say things without realizing she can read their lips. Paul is obviously Carla's intellectual inferior--a bit of a thug in need of a good wash--and he doesn't have a heart of gold either. What do they need from each other? And what are they capable of giving? But it's the characters that make this film fascinating and unpredictable. The depths of their characters are revealed through crisis and need. The acting was superb, and I especially enjoyed Emmanuelle Devos as Carla. For French film lovers, "Read My Lips" is a must--displacedhuman.
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