Perhaps you want to know something about the star of 'Amelie' first. But facts first. Based on the operetta first staged in 1925, 'Not on the Lips' ('Pas Sur La Bouche!') is a lightweight musical comedy, starring Sabine Azema, Isabella Nanty, Audrey Tautou, Pierre Arditi, Darry Cowl, Jalil Lespert, Daniel Prevost, and Lambert Wilson (the mysterious French character in 'Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions').
So this is a comedy with ensemble cast. Regardless of what you see on the DVD cover, Audrey Tautou's role is not big, but not small. That, however, does not change the fact that 'Not on the Lips' is a fun to watch for the fans of operetta, or kind of silly but delightful, old-fashioned farce with little songs and neat art deco.
The film, which does not hide its stage origin, is divided into three 'acts.' The story starts when George (Arditi) rather pompously tells of his theory about love -- he says, to any woman, the first love is always the best love. Little does he know that his wife Gilberte (Azema) was (fleetingly) married to an American, one Eric Thompson (Wilson), and to her great surprise, Eric is coming to her house as her unsuspecting husband's business partner.
Thus, as the rules of farce, the mistaken (and hidden) identities and door slamming complicate the situations. Things get more confusing (and funny) when starry-eyed Huguette (Tautou) falls in love with the hunky 'artist' Charley (Lespert), who in turn chases Gilberte .... and so on an on. Can't you follow the relations now? It's okay, anyway, you can when you see the film itself.
The film is full of playful songs (sung by the cast), and they are mostly enjoyable, though they might sound repetitous. The problems is not that; it is, probably non-French-speaking audience would not fully appreciate the joy that these songs and dialogus convey. (I must confess that I, being a Japanese, couldn't.) Plenty of puns like 'Cubism' and 'CooCoo-ism' could be heard, but many of them just flew over my head.
And as the film retains some of the now out-of-date values and manners (intentionally, I guess), you may be slightly embarrassed, hearing the phoney 'American' English -- hear Lambert Wilson's 'WHATDDYA SAY' -- or seeing a hunk who looks like Rudolph Valentino.
But the film succeeds in creating the joyful mood, and though the contents are slight, it is great to see the glitteringly gorgeous costumes that none of us would wear today. For someone like veteran director Alain Resnais ('Last Year at Marienbad' and many many others), it must be an easy job. (By the way, he was born in 1922.)
It's a fluff, to be sure, but in a way it's an admirable job, for, even among the recent revival of musicals, no one can and would make a film like this today -- these charming songs you might hear on old LP records, the fluffy clothes, and talk about 'resque' that is no longer 'risque' these days. You may like it, ot hate it. I happen to like it, and charming Audrey Tautou too, that's why 4 stars.
