¡Spoilers! I saw this kooky film in Spain dubbed into Spanish. It was a little slow getting started and as this was the second movie of a double feature I almost walked out. Once the structure revealed itself and the time-line started to double-back on itself I couldn't wait to see what happened next. My biggest complaint in the movie was the casting of Vincent. I thought that he was staking Rosalie so that he could hook up with her and when he finally kissed Aude I was completely shocked and confused. They gave some hints that Aude thought Vincent had more to him than met the spying eyes but I didn't see a romance in bloom.To me he looked as old as the woman he was pursuing. There were quite a few laugh-out-loud bits in the film but they didn't go overboard on the bizarre.

This film was reported as receiving the greatest audience support in 27 years of the Alliance Françoise film festival, and while it's an entertainingly competent film, I'm not sure it's in the quarter-of- a-century-best type realm.It's a tale of mid 30s hairdresser Vincent's obsession with slightly older Rosalie, and the unlikely series of circumstances which both led to his feelings and unfold with the film's narrative. The involvement of Rosalie's niece Aude (Alice Isaaz) and her two friends brings both the three sad sacks Vincent, Rosalie, Simone (Vincent's mother) and the film to life, and this contrast is a strength. We get more than one perspective on quite a proportion of the film, and while this ultimately worked, initially it seemed repetitive before I'd worked out what was going on. While the set up seems a bit slow, it provides good solid background for many of the characters and the overall situation.The French village scenes and occasional long view are lovely, particularly with the cool colours of winter and long low twilight ambiance.The story comes from Camille Jourdy's graphic novels 'Rosalie Blum' and it could be this is the source of the film's greatest strengths but also weaknesses. If you're making a film based on a book, current expectation is to stick to the book. Omit, as necessary maybe, but don't add. I've not read (viewed?) these graphic novels, but somehow I found the story line just a wee bit too circumstantial or inadequately portrayed to be really riveting.

The French film Rosalie Blum (2016) is a low-key comedy that uses whimsical coincidence as a narrative framing device. Whimsy is an old-fashioned term that describes something playfully funny about nothing of consequence. Rather than plot-driven, this story is like a loose jigsaw puzzle of quirky characters whose paths connect by chance and whose lives become entwined. Part of the whimsy comes from the story being told from three different viewpoints that eventually converge to explain little more than how the paths came to intersect in the first place. Vincent is a balding shy downtrodden 30-something hairdresser dominated by his mother and emotionally still a child. By chance he meets middle-aged shopkeeper Rosalie and is perplexed by the feeling he knows her from somewhere. To fill his empty life, he begins to follow her and she soon notices his stalking. Rosalie asks her niece Aude to follow him to find out what's going on and she readily agrees just for fun. The story switches to their view of the adventure, and we see Aude and her friends as accident-prone bumbling detectives. Rosalie enjoys the attention as the characters continue to secretly watch each other until the game reaches it quaintly funny and inconsequential finale. A thin plot line like this needs added substance to make it work and this comes from characterisation and charming French village setting. Vincent is neither likable nor unlikeable, just innocuously ordinary and he plays this part to perfection. The relationship with his mother both humanises him and renders him hopelessly dependent. Rosalie is equally unfulfilled with a sad story of her own about an estranged son; she is sanguine about life and accepting of its disappointments. Aude is the spark that ignites the two hollow logs, exuberantly youthful and optimistic. Together with her excitable sleuthing friends they create several of the comic sketches that inject humour into an otherwise colourless tale. The narrative tension that sustains our curiosity comes from the hanging possibility of romance and our need for an explanation of Vincent's obsessive behaviour. All are loners, and loneliness is a magnet for meaning and attachment. Describing this film as a comedy is using the label in its most elastic form. There are many chuckles but few laughs: whimsy is like that. Quirky, soulful and curious are words that come closer to describing this modestly engaging tale about nothing much at all and the little-known actors rise to the challenge. The story elevates ordinariness to a higher plane and satisfies the curiosity it contrives with a simple yet charming finale.

I saw it at the French Film Festival in Sydney 2016. It is everything I love in a film: well written, original ideas, quirky, humorous, great character development, affirming relationships, satisfactory resolution but not saccharine. Each of the characters has moved on to a new place in their lives, and there is more to come. France pumps out films of very high quality with great regularity....and the rom-com genre is a favourite. This one s a cut above the rest because it contains pathos without being clichéd.The plot is divided into chapters, re-telling events from the point of view of the three main characters. I love this....each re-telling provides reveals which move the story along, and provide laughs.