La Petite Lili

A country house: a movie actress (Garcia), her director and lover (Giraudeau), her cinéaste son (Stévenin) and grouchy old father (Marielle) bicker together while generally reacting admiringly, if somewhat warily, to the son's girlfriend Lili (Sagnier), a local lass who appears to be far simpler and more straightforward than the sophisticates she's hanging out with. But how would her natural sensuousness be translated by the camera? Miller's elegant confection about movie types has its moments (including a wonderful gag, towards the end, involving Piccoli), but is too bogged down in its bourgeois milieu ever to succeed as anything other than a light divertissement. The egotistical actress and her clan really are an unappealing shower and a vague aura of self-indulgent pointlessness hangs over the entire movie.