Although she now has three credits as writer director Isabelle Mergault, unlike for example Valerie Lemercier, Noemie Lvovsky, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. to name only three, has so far chosen not to perform in films she has directed. Given her 49 acting credits on film plus others on stage - I myself saw her perform in her own play Ne Me Regardez Comme Ca in Paris last year = this is clearly not from lack of ability but perhaps she admires the three triple- threats cited and feels acting in addition to writing and directing would be a threat too far. I've yet to see her last (so far) entry as a double threat, Donnant Donnant, but I have seen and enjoyed her debut, I Find You Very Handsome, and the follow up, this one both of which whet the appetite for the third despite the Entertainment- hating tame reviewer at filmsdefrance who heaved his usual harpoon at enfin veuve. Michelle Laroque and Jacques Gamblin are assets to any film in which they deign to appear and weigh in with top-drawer acting in this take on The Merry Widow in which Laroque, trapped in a marriage dead from the neck down but happy with lover Gamblin is suddenly free to love him openly until her family from Hell move in convinced they are sustaining her. Okay, it's a trifle but it's cooked to a fare-the-well by all hands and a delight to watch.
Review of The Merry Widow
