Paul & Paulette Take a Bath
Jethro Massey’s debut feature is an original French romcom peeling off the darker layers of Paris.
Marie Benati
Image courtesy of Conic.
This is the first feature from Jethro Massey who describes himself as British/French and made Paris his home in 2001 but who for the most part prefers to make films in English. Consequently, that is the language used in this romantic comedy despite it being set in Paris and featuring a French cast. The mix is unusual but what is even more surprising is the fact that in moving on from shorts and videos for the first time Massey, who is writer and producer as well as director, has come up with a film which has its own unique flavour. In the event it's a taste that has led to massively divisive reviews. On the positive side Paul & Paulette Take a Bath has won no less than five awards at festivals including two at the 2024 Venice Film Festival but it is also the case that it makes some viewers uncomfortable and it is easy to understand both reactions.
The film’s title may make it sound saucy in a sexy way but in fact it is never that and indeed at the outset it suggests a conventional romcom in which a beautifully photographed Paris is the setting where an American living in the city, Paul (Jérémie Galiana), encounters an attractive French girl, Paulette (Marie Benati), in the Place de la Concorde. This chance meeting, one which will lead into a potential romance, initially suggests a work that might be akin to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise. Nevertheless, something very different soon emerges as a central feature here. Even their first scene together reveals that Paulette is fascinated by Marie Antoinette and in particular by her execution. Paulette even asks Paul to cut her hair in the manner that would have been applied to Marie Antoinette just before her death. Not long after that it becomes clear that Paulette's weird fascination extends to other historical figures and to disturbing past events. Another execution referenced later will be to the Communards shot in 1871 and individuals mentioned as these two talk together include Genghis Khan and Stalin. Much later they drive to Salzburg to meet Paulette's parents (Gilles Graveleau and Fanny Cottençon) and go there by way of Munich where Paul rents an apartment overnight and tells Paulette that, even if it is not an actual crime scene, it was an abode where Hitler and Eva Braun stayed. It is here that Paul and Paulette have the bath of the title and when doing so they refer to themselves as Hitler and Eva Braun.
On one level Massey’s film is a standard love story following the familiar pattern of potential lovers who meet cute, fall for one another and then encounter obstacles which may or may not be overcome. One additional modern touch relevant to that is added here in that Paulette is portrayed as bisexual and a woman still with feelings for her ex, Margerita (Margot Joseph). On paper to take the old formula and to blend in a potentially dark obsession is to create contrasted tones likely to conflict. But it is the fact that Massey puts these ingredients together that gives Paul & Paulette Take a Bath its unique character, albeit that it is also the reason why his film has divided opinion. What he attempts is not to play the references to terrible past historical events as outright black comedy but to incorporate them into an idiosyncratic comic tale that remains romantic at heart. As the writer here Massey is obviously aware of how risky this procedure is. Consequently, he starts the film with two voice overs, one by Paul and one by Paulette, which will be echoed later and which both imply a fairytale element rather than a realistic narrative: they both begin with the words "Once upon a time". The evil men of history who are evoked are never admired and the film’s tone retains a lightness of touch. In this way the frequent references to dark past events, most of them directly linked to Paris, function as a hint that romance if truly found is in effect an escape, a refuge, from a sinister world. By recognising that threats exist in real life, the film takes on an extra edge and becomes a unique romcom.
That said, Massey is at times less than cautious. In this context it is risky to throw in a subsidiary character named Valérie (Laurence Vaissière). She is a former lover of Paul who is still keen on him and who becomes his unpopular boss when he takes up a real estate job. That the staff have nicknamed her Goebbels adds ammunition to the view that jokes related to actual horrors are in bad taste. When I saw the film, I already knew that some critics had found the film off-putting on this score and thought that I might concur, but in the event I only partly did so.
For a debut feature director handling difficult material Jethro Massey functions for much of the time with remarkable assurance. There is an extra move away from reality in the film’s specific use of songs composed by Marc Tassell who at one stage makes an on-screen appearance and, if in theory Paulette’s weird obsessions could make her unprepossessing, aid is to hand in the engaging personality of the actress playing this role (one of the film’s awards was for Marie Benati as Best Actress). Despite the light touch applied, one can regard the characters as credible enough for one to anticipate that when a secret about Paulette's father is eventually revealed it will provide, along with her mother's prejudices, a reason for Paulette’s strange fascination with killers and their victims. It does indeed prove relevant to that but rather more detail is required than Massey gives us.
For at least three quarters of its length, I enjoyed Paul & Paulette Take a Bath and was appreciative of its novelty and of the appeal of Marie Benati in particular, but I found the last section hard to take. I do feel that as some have suggested the film could in time become a cult classic and suspect that finding it distasteful may be related to one’s age since younger viewers are less likely to be put off by references that relate back to the Second World War. But I do think that it is unsettling and inappropriate to come up-to-date in that connection and a scene related to the Bataclan killings of 2015 does leave a nasty taste, a fact which then discourages any emotional involvement as the film comes to a close. Even so, this film is patently the work of a talented director and is so completely individual that it gives a fresh meaning to the phrase "a screen original".
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Marie Benati, Jérémie Galiana, Laurence Vaissiere, Margot Joseph, Fanny Cottençon, Gilles Graveleau, James Gerard, Natasha Cashman, Isham Conrath, Ralf Legat, Marc Tassell.
Dir Jethro Massey, Pro Jethro Massey, Screenplay Jethro Massey Ph Isaac Eiriksson and Ole Marius Dahl, Props Louise Lorendeau, Ed Julien Chardon, Music Julien Decoret and Marc Tassell, Costumes Joanna Wojtowicz.
Film Fabric-Conic.
109 mins. UK. 2024. UK Rel: 5 September 2025. Cert. 15.
