Film

Bored with her usual routine as a French Riviera gold digger (and frustrated with the graying, sleeping would-be fiancé she left upstairs), Irène (Tautou) wanders to the bar in the middle of the night and mistakes Jean the bartender (Elmaleh) for a millionaire. Charmed by his confusion and his curious facility for mixing drinks, Irène seduces him, then runs off. A year later she falls for him again, trashing her hard-earned engagement—only to discover that Jean is just a lowly waiter. We hear the same thing once happened to a film critic at Cannes.

Not content to eat something other than caviar for dinner, Irène gets revenge on Jean by taking him on a date. This catastrophe nearly results in jail time, but Jean is bailed out by a wealthy woman (Adam) seeking a fresh companion. “Now we are equals,” Irène coos. Priceless stays surprising so long as it remains cynical; Jean is shown taking unseemly pleasure in his new flow of euros, and Tautou—knowing she’s in for Breakfast at Tiffany’s name-checks—gets bonus points for trashing her Hepburn-lite image, playing Irène as a shallow, calculating rhymes-with-rich. Of course, it’s clear from minute one that the two most photogenic cast members will end up digging at each other, and the film takes its time getting to that conclusion, breaking the hearts of a few more cash sources—of both genders—than is strictly necessary. It’s only priceless for the leads.