Le bar des amants

Director Bruno Romy has put together a surreal, droll, and sometimes melancholy, sometimes risqué if not simply trashy series of seven vignettes on the love lives of several couples in a small village in Normandy in Northwest France. Romy has chosen former circus performers, mimes, and actors from street theater -- most of them in their first-time film roles -- to interpret these diverse and off-the-wall couples/couplings. One young mute woman finds her voice through a ventriloquist, another falls in love with a trapeze artist, and a village idiot finds a unique way to experience his first intimate sexual encounter.

Directed by Bruno Romy, Le bar des amants leans on a strong ensemble — Bruno Romy, Pascaline Herveet, Emmanuelle Wion — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about comedy titles of 1998.