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He's My Girl AKA La folle historie d’amour de Simon Eskenazy AKA He Is My Girl
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (13th February 2011). |
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The Film
 He’s My Girl AKA La folle historie d’amour de Simon Eskenazy (Jean-Jacques Zilberman, 2009)  
Conceived as a sequel to his 1997 film L’homme est une femme comme les autres (Man is a Woman), Jean-Jacques Zilberman’s La folle historie d’amour de Simon Eskenazy (He’s My Girl, 2009) focuses on the same lead character, Parisian-Jewish clarinettist Simon Eskenazy (played in both films by Antoine de Caunes). Where Man is a Woman attracted praise due to its sensitive exploration of Ezkanazy’s struggle with his homosexuality and his attempt to bury his sexuality by marrying Jewish singer Rosalie Baumann (Elsa Zylberstein), He’s My Girl (set ten years after the original film) opens with Eskanazy – now divorced from Rosalie – confidently declaring his romantic interest in a younger man, Raphael (Micha Lescot). The now-openly (and happily) gay Eskenazy finds his life complicated when his disabled mother, Bella (Judith Magre), who needs constant care. Whilst romancing Raphael, Ezkenazy is also romantically involved with French-Arab cross-dresser Naim (Mehdi Dehbi), a waitress who is able to change identity in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, Simon’s ex-wife Rosalie (Zylberstein) returns to Paris from New York, bringing with her Simon’s son Yankele (Taylor Gasman).  
The film follows Simon’s encounters with the various people in his life, and his attempts to keep a grip on his various relationships. Ultimately, with the arrival of Rosalie and Yankele, Eskenazy is forced to confront the colliding of worlds that occurs when Naim and Raphael become aware of each other’s presence in Simon’s life, and Naim accepts the responsibility of caring for Simon’s mother. The film takes the structure of a farce, punctuated by lively Klezmer music on the soundtrack, which foregrounds the issue of identity politics (the film’s English title, Naim’s ability to change identity at will, Simon’s mother’s retrenchment into her Jewish identity, Simon’s son’s status as a bilingual French-American). The relationship between Simon and Naim is complicated somewhat by the fact that Simon is Jewish and Naim is Muslim. Throughout the film, Simon and Naim have comic disagreements about their respective cultural heritage. (‘It wasn’t all desert and camels. The Palestinians lived on that land’, Naim asserts. ‘Did the Jews get thrown out of Algeria and get compensation?’, Simon retorts.) This theme of cultural conflict runs throughout the film, with the narrative making strong use of the multi-ethnic neighbourhood in which Simon lives and Simon’s mother being preoccupied with the Holocaust, seeing it all around her – even in the nurse who has been hired to look after her, who she refers to as ‘The Gestapository’.  
Ultimately, the film is a variation on a classic Hollywood theme, that of the selfish bachelor who must confront the consequences of his selfish ways (see Richard Quine’s How to Murder Your Wife, 1965, and more recently The Wedding Crashers, David Dobkin, 2005). In one sequence, Simon ironically tells his mother, ‘No one matters but you. I never met anyone more selfish and narcissistic. It’s incredible’. Shortly after, Simon refuses to help his mother, asserting ‘I can’t look after you: I’m too busy’ and attempting to encourage his mother to return to her home, to be cared for there by the nurse Simon has hired. However, Simon is put in his place by Naim, who chastises Simon for ‘the way you treat your mother’ and inveigles himself into the role of Simon’s mother’s carer - with Simon’s mother unaware that Naim is in fact a man. Whilst the film’s subtle subversion of a long-standing Hollywood cliché is delightful, what is most impressive about He’s My Girl is Mehdi Dehbi’s performance as Naim. For much of the film, Dehbi is given the thankless task of acting as Simon’s conscience, standing against Simon on a number of occasions and encouraging him to reflect on his relationships and his treatment of others.  
Running time: 86:18 mins (PAL)
Video
He’s My Girl is presented in its original screen ratio of 1.78:1, with anamorphic enhancement. The film was apparently shot on digital video and displays the aesthetic characteristics of modern DV-shot material (funky contrast, subtly blown-out highlights). The DVD transfer is very good.  
Audio
The film is presented in its original French language, via a two-channel track with subtle surround encoding. Optional English subtitles are included.
Extras
The only extras are several bonus trailers (which play on start-up and are skippable): Plan B; Suddenly, Last Winter; Rumba (5:45).
Overall
Whilst not a great film, He’s My Girl is a charming, often witty and quite touching continuation of the story of Simon Eskenazy. As noted above, the film benefit from a very strong performance by Mehdi Dehbi as Naim. The DVD contains a good presentation of the film but suffers from the lack of contextual material; it would have been nice to see the filmmakers and cast offer some comments about the film. For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD.
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