After a long collaboration marked by resounding successes, Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri touch the sublime with The Taste of Others. For the duo, who had already commanded admiration with Cuisine et Dépendances, it is the culmination of a formula honed to a form of perfection.
On March 1, 2000, the wonderful Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson appeared on French screens. Numerous trajectories collide within a choral narrative that speaks of human beings, their connections, their pain. The same day Le Goût des autres… was released, the narrative ambitions of which were ultimately quite similar.
For Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, it’s a new coup. 3.8 million spectators in France, four Césars (including best film), a nomination for the Oscar for best foreign language film and almost unanimous critical coverage: this spectacular triumph reminds us that we can make cinema that is both fine and popular. Above all, it crowns an extraordinary creative adventure.
Well! Reign, cruel, satisfy your glory
A brilliant duo come of age
Enigmatic intruders threaten the artificial tranquility of a cocoon. Despite this context conducive to seriousness, the story overflows with humor, whether absurd or linguistic. No, this is not the pitch for a creation by Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, but for the play L’Anniversaire, which we owe to the English Nobel Prize winner for literature Harold Pinter. In 1986, the director Jean-Michel Ribes decided to stage it. Without knowing it, through his distribution he will bring about the meeting of one of the most fertile duos in the history of French cinema.
Bacri/Jaoui, Jaoui/Bacri, whichever way you look at it, it’s solid, a Protected Designation of Origin of superior quality. After their love at first sight, the two thieves launched into writing together, notably signing the successful play Cuisine et dependences which won a Molière before going to conquer even more hearts on the big screen.
I don’t argue anymore. I was waiting, to believe you,
Attracted by cinema, they wrote for Alain Resnais (Smoking / No Smoking, We know the song) as well as Un air de famille by Cédric Klapisch, who revealed them to the public. They won no less than three Césars over this period. For Jaoui, this is only the beginning since she will establish herself over the years as the most awarded woman in the history of the ceremony. And by interpreting their own scenarios, the names and faces of the two friends quickly become identifiable.
They then form a brand, a label of excellence with a very recognizable touch. Succeeding in the feat of attracting the public’s favor as well as the praise of critics, they stand out for their way of conveying the word through swirling dialogues and of identifying with singular acuity the characters of their peers.
That this same mouth, after a thousand sermons…
