Is Priceless the start of a new nouvelle vague?

It may not be Truffaut, but the Audrey Tautou comedy could be a hors d'oeuvre to tantalise Brit tastebuds for a different type of French cinema

Audrey Tautou
Gold-digger with a heart ... Audrey Tautou in Priceless

Priceless, a delightful French comedy about an innocent hotel waiter who falls for the charms of Audrey Tautou's gold-digging femme fatale, is a fun and fluffy comedy of manners that is breaking new ground in the UK. Gallic features making it big on this side of the Channel tend to fall into two categories: the well-made, serious film with a message about the human condition (Hidden, The Beat that My Heart Skipped) or the movie which perpetuates the clichés les rosbifs have of the frogs (Amélie).

Those which don't make it on to the Eurostar are generally genre movies: cop thrillers, family dramas, and especially, comedies. Countless Gallic comedies that have thrilled millions of French cinemagoers never make it to the UK. Take, for instance, OSS 117: Le Caire Nid D'Espions (OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies), a French piss-take of the James Bond films - you will never look at Sean Connery in the same way again.

Tautou is brilliant in Priceless, killing off her sugary sweet image as Amélie. One could argue that the film perpetuates a certain cliché, as it's about French people having lots of sex and it takes place on the Riviera. But it is unlike anything Brits can catch at the multiplex. So bonne chance Priceless! Hopefully it will mark the start of more varied French fare here.