There’s a new Jean Dujardin movie being dumped without advance reviews in New York on Friday. You remember Dujardin — the handsome and charming Frenchman who took home a Best Actor Oscar for his work in the black-and-white (and mostly silent) comedy “The Artist’’ — 2012’s Best Picture winner.
Dujardin co-wrote and co-directed the new movie with Michel Haznavicius, who won a Best Director Oscar for “The Artist.’’
So why is the film, “The Players (Les Infidèles),” not being screened in advance for critics here? And why are there no print ads?
Nobody at the Weinstein Company (which handled the US release of “The Artist’’ and masterminded its Oscar campaign, and is now distributing Dujardin’s new film) was available to discuss such an unusual marketing strategy for a film with credentials like this.
But it’s not hard to guess.
“The Players (Les Infidèles)” consists of several raunchy sketches starring Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche as French horndogs having extramarital affairs in Las Vegas and other locales. It was infamous in France even before it opened, shortly after “The Artist’’ won the Best Picture Oscar.
The film’s racy posters were pulled in France after complaints that they were blatantly sexist. One of them showed Dujardin’s character holding the spread-eagle legs of a woman, with this line of dialogue on top: “I’m going into another meeting.’’ A similar image, minus the dialogue, appears on the American poster.
There were also reports in 2012 that an offensive segment was cut before early screenings for critics in France because it might have jeopardized the Oscar chances of “The Artist.’’
According to London’s Telegraph newspaper, in the deleted sequence Dujardin played an unfaithful New York husband who is seducing a woman while talking to his wife on the phone in a hotel — while, in the background, an airplane can be seen flying into the World Trade Center.
“Yes, yes, my darling, everything is fine!’’ the character reportedly says (as the film wasn’t screened for critics in New York, it’s unclear which segments are and aren’t being shown here).
Then there were the reviews. A reviewer for Le Monde in Paris wasn’t too keen on the film’s apparent attempts to parody misogynistic behavior, writing in French that “ ‘Les Infidèles’ has the effect of a time machine ride to a time we don’t miss.”
A local reviewer in for the Hollywood Reporter said that “even when it leaves behind all the nooky jokes and butt shots (Dujardin’s included) . . . [it is] never much more than an extended sketch comedy whose longer segments tend to wear out their welcome.’’
The notices in London were no better. “Will the same audience that embraced the amiable, suave Dujardin, with his raffish moustache and toothy grin, return to the cinema to see him play a series of feckless man-sluts in a half-baked string of sketches about male infidelity?’’ asked a reviewer for the Times of London.
The Observer’s critic was even more pointed: “ I was forced to wonder: were the talkies really invented so we could listen to Dujardin beating off in a lonely motel room?’’
Two years later, “The Players (Les Infidèles)” may well be the first film ever to open at the prestigious Paris Theatre off Fifth Avenue without advance press screenings. It’s also showing at the Village East — a longtime dumping ground for films with contractually mandated theatrical runs — as well as in 48 other theaters, mostly art houses, around the country.
In another odd twist, at all of these theaters “The Players’’ will be sharing a screen (separate admission is charged) with “On the Other Side of the Tracks.’’ Another 2012 French import opening without advance screenings, this homage to Hollywood’s 1980s’s buddy cop comedies stars Omar Sy, whom the Weinstein Company unsuccessfully promoted as an Oscar nominee for “The Intouchables.’’
“The Players’’ is not the first time the Weinsteins have dumped a film with one of its Oscar winners without screening.
Back in 1997, when they were running Miramax, Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for the Italian film “Life is Beautiful,’’ which was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Benigni). Five years later, Miramax opened “Pinocchio’’ — starring and directed by Benigni — in the US, sans reviews in an English-dubbed version.
At least “Les Infidèles’’ is still in French — or at least it seems to be, going by this highly confusing US trailer:
“On the Other Side of the Tracks’’ trailer: