Artivels Undescribable Perfection

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

paul2001sw-1 There's something almost cloyingly twee about 'Venus Beauty Institute', a romantic drama constructed around a series of encounters between the staff of a Paris beauty salon and their clients. The problem is not so much with the individual vignette, which are generally well observed and acted, but rather in the underpinning notion that all life can be neatly sampled through such a prism, each set-piece topped and tailed by the ghastly sound generated each time the shops's doors are opened. There's even an early role for Audrey Tautou, which provides one clue as to the tone of the film. However, the movie is definitely a cut above the likes of 'Bridget Jones' Diary', principally because of the fine performance of Nathalie Baye in the central role. She plays a subtly jaundiced forty-something, and imbues the film with a touching realism absent from generic chick-lit adaptations. There's little real plot that can't be foreseen, but thanks to Baye (and the understated direction of Tonie Marshall), this is a more interesting movie than most in its genre.

Frogwoman01 Netflix described this movie as follows: "With "Venus Beauty Institute," French writer and director Tonie Marshall takes us into this world of beauty and self image and into the lives of four strong, smart woman who make their living practicing beauty at a Parisian spa."I was waiting throughout the entire movie for a glimpse of a strong woman...every woman in the entire movie seemed to me to be needy, insecure, wounded, angry, naive, or self destructive. The implausible plot of the very appealing Antoine, falling head over heels for Angele, I just didn't buy it. Not to mention, why did they have to make him already engaged to someone else? So throughout the whole thing, I'm feeling pissed off that he is betraying his fiance, while wooing this already completely screwed up woman, who has no faith in men already, but this guy is supposed to restore her faith in men, only he is destroying the life of another woman in order to restore the faith of this one????? The whole premise really upset me. I just wish the movie had been described differently. As women with low self esteem and issues with men, dealing with their issues in their own uniquely unhealthy fashions.

dcarbajales If this movie has been selected as the best film of the year by French Academy, I don't want to think about the other movies. We are in front of a silly movie, nothing in it must be considered. We can only watch it as amusement such as we hear raining. This is a movie of the pile, we can watch it, but if we don't watch nothing happens.

Steve Schonberger Nathalie Baye is on the screen in almost every scene, and it's never too much. She's outstanding. The supporting cast are also very good. The directing is mostly quite good too. But the real treat is in the story.The main character, Angèle, is a beautician who is afraid to fall in love, because she's been hurt too much in the past. A new man tells her he's in love -- the last thing she wants to hear from a man. She's 40, but the story would have worked for a person of any age. (I saw the movie at a Seattle International Film Festival screening. Director Tonie Marshall told us in the audience that she had Nathalie Baye in mind as the star, and wrote the character to fit her.) But I can't say much more about the main plot without spoilers.While the story is centered on Angèle, there are several other interesting characters, mainly her co-workers (particularly young, innocent Marie) and some interesting regular clients (particularly the comical Madame Buisse).While the story is mainly a romantic comedy, there is some drama. The story does a good job of keeping the comedy and serious drama from running into conflict with each other. And unusual for a comedy, the story doesn't stray from plausibility for the sake of humor, but the comedy is still strong.