Product Details

• Actors: Anouk Aimée, Keith Allen (VII), Claude Berri, Jérôme Bertin, Alain Chabat
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Kino International
• DVD Release Date: October 11, 2005
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009XRZKQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,701 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Call it The Mind of the Married French Man. In his second film with Charlotte Gainsbourg (21 Grams), Yvan Attal (Bon Voyage) looks at monogamy through the prism of three middle-aged Parisians who work at the same luxury auto dealership. Georges (Alain Chabat) is unhappily married to the combative Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner), the single Fred (Alain Cohen) is seeing several different lovelies, and Vincent (writer/director Attal) has a seemingly idyllic relationship with realtor Gabrielle (Gainsbourg, Attal's companion)--complete with precocious urchin. In reality, they're in a rut. So while Fred swears his is a lonely life, his frustrated friends aren't convinced. One day in a record store, Gabrielle locks eyes with an attractive stranger (Johnny Depp in a mostly wordless, if effective cameo) while listening to Radiohead's "Creep," with its somber "I don't belong here" refrain. Things go no further, although Gainsbourg's expressive face clearly registers a longing for more. Vincent, on the other hand, surrenders to temptation. As in his feature debut, My Wife is an Actress, in which Attal imagined Gainsbourg having an affair with suave co-star Terence Stamp, his Vincent is the weaker of the two, although Gabrielle is a less unwitting victim this time. Happily Ever After, their fifth film as co-stars, treads a fine line between comedy and pathos before giving way to a fantasy concerning Depp. Or was it all in Gabrielle's head? Attal leaves it up to the viewer to decide. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description
Is the love compatible with coupledom? and what of freedom and fidelity? these are some of the questions facing two married men. Studio: Kino International Release Date: 10/11/2005 Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg Emmanuelle Seigner Run time: 105 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love and Marriage...and other consequences , October 24, 2005

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants" ("Happily Ever After") is a cleverly written examination of contemporary views on love, lust, marriage, infidelity, and the single life. Writer/Director/Actor Yvan Attal has come up with a winner, an entertaining, funny, and ultimately thoughtful treatise on how we cope with partnering.

Three men work together in a car dealership. Vincent (Yvan Attal) is the apparently happily married man with a beautiful wife Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and child. Georges (Alain Chabat) on the other hand is in a tumultuous marriage with Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner) who has gender issues that go far beyond feminism and negatively influence their child. Fred (Alain Cohen) is single, bedding every lovely woman he encounters, balancing trysts between mornings, afternoons, and evenings and is deeply envied for his Don Juanism. But Fred actually longs for the sense of belonging that married men enjoy.

The men's lives intertwine on many levels. Most important, we discover that Vincent has a lover (Angie David) despite his idyllic married life and while it is Georges whom one would expect to seek solace from a lover, he remains faithful to his nagging wife! Gabrielle senses Vincent's affair and encounters a sexy man in a music shop (Johnny Depp) who begins to preoccupy her thoughts. She is a real estate broker and comes close to an assignation with a client but remains faithful. All the while she daydreams about her brief encounter with Depp and satisfies her wandering eye with those memories. Fred discovers that one of his paramours is pregnant and happily decides to leap into the married fray. The only 'adults' sharing advice here are Vincent's long married parents (Anouk Aimée and Claude Berri in very welcome comeback cameos!) and it is this 'standard' that adds the final humor to the film.

The manner in which all three men deal with their living situations asks as many questions as it gives answers. Attal finds joy in all forms of coupling and is careful to offer all sides of decisions his characters make in arriving at what provides them happiness. This is a smart movie with terrific twists. There is just enough slapstick (an all out food fight between Vincent and Gabrielle - real life husband and wife team Attal and Gainsbourg - that proves to be one of the fun-loving bits of silliness that binds their marriage) to keep the mood light. Not a profound film, but a joyous French comedy handled by total pros! In French and English with subtitles. Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There are no Happily Ever Afters in this Sophisticated French Comedy., November 6, 2008

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a brave, tres Francaise date movie that should leave couples talking afterwards about the provocative issues it raises involving love, marriage, and monogamy. The point of this film is that there are never any guarantees of happiness when it comes to life, love and marriage. Written and directed by Yvan Attal (My Wife Is an Actress), Happily Ever After (Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants, which translates as "And They Got Married and Had Many Children") is a sexy, 2004 French romantic serio-comedy starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and her real-life husband, Attal, with a long cameo appearance by Johnny Depp (who proves his fluency in French). Married with with a young son (Ben Attal, the son of Attal and Gainsbourg), Vincent (Attal) is cheating on his wife, Gabrielle (Gainsbourg), who is contemplating infidelity herself with Johnny Depp, whom she meets at a Virgin megastore while listening to Radiohead's "Creep." Despite their infidelities, real or imagined, the couple still experiences playful moments in their marriage, along with lots of really hot sex. Meanwhile, hotel manager Georges (Alain Chabat) dreams of escapinging his miserable marriage, and French womanizer Fred (Alain Cohen) longs for a monogomous relationship. "You know nothing about married women," he knowningly tells his friends when they complain about their wives. This is a captivating film, despite its message, which seems to be that there are no "Happily Ever Afters" in the real world.

There is much to love about this film, and there are at least five good reasons to experience it.

1. Gainsbourg's performance as Gabrielle carries the film. Knowing her husband is cheating on her, she weeps in Parisian cafes over the state of her her marriage, and then sadly watches as her 5-year-old son would rather flirt with a girl on the bus than spend time with his mother. "You can't love several people at once," she poignantly lectures her son, despite the film's compelling argument to the contrary.

2. There is one scene in the film where Vincent talks on the phone with his mistress (Angie David) who, unbeknownst to her, happens to be sitting at the very next table to Gabrielle in a crowded bistro.

3. There are two memorable elevator scenes in the film, the first in which Vincent and Gabrielle find themselves in a moment of uncontrolled passion, and the other in which Gabrielle fantasizes that she is kissing Depp as the elevator continues to rise into the clouds without ever stopping.

4. There is also a messy food fight scene between Vincent and Gabrielle which culminates in tender sex between the two.

5. Radiohead, the Velvet Underground, and Elvis Presley are prominantly featured in the killer soundtrack.

G. Merritt

4.0 out of 5 stars Above average new French flick, January 28, 2009

By	Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Three French couples grapple with the ups and downs of relationships, wondering if anyone is actually ever happy, as the old refrain would have it. Naturally, the answer is quite ambiguous and complications ensue as all three weave in and around questions of fidelity. The American pop score bears little relation to the action, and gets downright bizarre when Elvis starts crooning. Johnny Dep makes a cameo appearance and seems to speak very good French. Who knew?