Nobody Else But You (Poupoupidou)

Eminently Enjoyable Serio-Comic Mystery Loses Its Balance a Little Toward End.
"Nobody Else but You" is a serio-comic mystery set in the small, snowy French town of Mouthe on the Swiss border. David Rousseau (Jean-Paul Rouve) is an author of pulp detective novels, come to Mouthe for the reading of his uncle's will, which happens to coincide with the discovery of the body of Candice Laucoeur (Sophie Quinton) in the nearby wilderness. Candice was a cheese spokesmodel and television weather girl, which made her a celebrity in Mouthe. Shivering in his hotel room, pestered by his agent to finish the book for which he's contracted, David is struck by this odd story of the apparent suicide of this small town starlet. He decides to investigate. He's discouraged by the local police, until Bruno (Guillaume Gouix), a junior officer who dreams of being a detective in Canada, becomes convinced that Candice's death was not suicide.

Gérald Hustache-Mathieu wrote and directed "Nobody Else but You", intertwining lighthearted black humor and predictable...

For the Love of Film
I didn't know this title when I keyed it up. Never heard of it but it received some positive reviews with some tantalizing comparisons to "Fargo" so I figured I'd take the dive. I'm more than glad I did.

Here's the scoop. A hack crime novelist is experiencing writers block. He's in a no man's land type area nestled between France and Switzerland when he sees some men loading a dead woman into the back of an ambulance. He later learns that the dead girl was a much beloved local celebrity who was reported to have committed suicide. A few things surface that throw up red flags for him so he ain't buyin' it. He starts his own investigation and comes up with some surprising results.

Where to begin. This is an outstanding film for any number of reasons. The comparisons with "Fargo," though understandable, are a bit off. Yes you are dealing with a serious crime in a somewhat comic manner, however (and there's always a however) the humor here was more subtle than in...

NOBODY ELSE BUT YOU Is A Tart Noir With Dreams Of Being So Much More
I watch a lot of foreign films. I've frequently explained that what draws me to more international releases - as opposed to mainstream and sideline American films - is that the completed product often times feels a bit more inspired than U.S. counterparts. I've mostly attributed this to the American studio system - where so many releases get written for specific actors or go through what I've been led to believe is a rigorous studio process to customize so many elements to an actor's or director's or producer's specific "wish list" - and this tends to suck some of the life out of the picture. And NOBODY ELSE BUT YOU is precisely the kind of film I celebrate discovering. While it reminds me of several U.S. domestic projects, it lives and breathes with a creative vibrancy all of its own.

Rousseau (played by Jean-Paul Rouve) is a top-selling crime novelist struggling with writer's block. Taking a few days off to settle the terms of a distant relative's estate, he happens...

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