Read My Lips

Carla (Devos) does a bit of everything for a property development firm that takes her loyalty and talent for granted, and she does it well. But while the boss agrees to her hiring an assistant - she selects scuzzily good-looking but clueless ex-con Paul (Cassel) - her colleagues mostly treat her like dirt, ridiculing her frumpiness and taking credit for her work. It'd be worse still if they knew she's profoundly deaf, a disadvantage which she finds can be turned to her advantage. If only she and Paul, who has his own tormentors, could sort out their mutual wariness and their very different attitudes to life, they might savour some sweet revenge. Audiard's exquisitely elegant thriller is notable for its fresh, exploratory approach to genre. On one level, it's another bracing French film about the workplace, but filtered through Hitchcockian stylistic and thematic tropes. The plot has more than its share of wit and clever twists, there's insightful stuff involving voyeurism, shifts in power and point of view, and the sexual-romantic side is sensibly understated. And Devos and Cassel are both terrific.