# Vénus beauté (institut) (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  **

In writer/director Tonie Marshall's VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE (VÉNUS BEAUTÉ INSTITUT), Angèle, a beautician long-ago scarred by a love affair gone bad, is on the prowl for quick sexual flings with strangers. "Love is just another form of slavery," she explains to Antoine (Samuel Le Bihan), an old-fashioned kind of guy, who repulses her by pursuing her rather than the other way round and who prefers love before sex.

Angèle is played by Nathalie Baye, who appeared recently and quite impressively in AN AFFAIR OF LOVE, an infinitely better film with a remarkably similar plot. In VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE, a light-weight comedy and slice-of-life character study, she gets the only fleshed-out character. The rest of the cast are given parts that are little more than caricature. Most of the movie has her pursuing men who aren't particularly interested in her, while avoiding the only one who really is.

The Venus Beauty Institute, where Angèle works, has a potpourri of clients, but most are elderly women looking for miracle cures to stop their skin from aging. "It takes the skin down memory lane," Madame Nadine (Bulle Ogier), the shop's proprietor, lectures Angèle and her fellow beauticians about one of the beauty shop's many magical concoctions, which range from anti-aging creams to seaweed wraps.

The story is full of whimsical subplots. One is about a young woman with a killer body who always shows up wearing only a trench coat and high heels for her tanning session. She loves to parade around the salon strip naked, which attracts the eyes of passersby on the street. Another involves a man who comes in to get his wife's skin treated. After he was badly burned, his wife gave him the skin off of her buttock to be grafted onto his face. Since she is now deceased, he feels obligated to take good care of what little is left of her.

Probably the most interesting part of the movie is it's choice of perky colors of pink and powder blue. This is complemented by the salon's relentlessly cheery chimes, which ring whenever a customer enters or exits. Although pleasant enough, the movie, with its most memorable parts being its color scheme and sound effects, is not something worth recommending. Nathalie Baye's other recent film, AN AFFAIR OF LOVE, on the other hand, is outstanding and definitely worth recommending.

VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE runs 1:45. The film is in French with English subtitles. It is not rated but would be an R for full-frontal nudity, sex and language.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

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