Ma Vie est un Enfer

Balasko plays Leah - the one with the hellish life - exploited and patronised on all sides. Then along comes Abar (Auteuil), a slaphappy demon offering the standard soul-selling deal. Contracts are exchanged, but Abar has goofed: he was supposed to ensnare Leah's selfish Mum, and complications ensue on Earth as they do in Heaven, whence the case is referred after Abar and Leah fall in love. As in A Matter of Life and Death, the Afterlife is seen as a giant bureaucracy, where a vast telephone exchange monitors incoming prayers, and the Archangel Gabriel surreptitiously watches Roadrunner cartoons between celestial crises. It's sporadically amusing, with gags that range from the off-handedly Lubitschian to the teenishly gross. An added curiosity is the spectacle of the usually banked-down Auteuil in full Jerry Lewis mode throughout.