God Is Great and I'm Not (2001)

The impossibly adorable Audrey Tautou (Amelie, Dirty Pretty Things) stars in this remarkably vivid portrait of a relationship. Michelle (Tautou), a fashion model, sets off on a spiritual quest in the hope of finding emotional balance. What she finds is a veterinarian named Francois (Edouard Baer, Alias Betty), whose ambivalence about being Jewish leads Michelle to study the faith and consider conversion. The plot sounds heavy, but God Is Great (And I'm Not) is actually a light, fluid movie that's as alert to the thousand tiny ways in which men and women miscommunicate and defeat their best intentions. Michelle's spiritual yearnings are questionable, yet Tautou captures her hunger for something more and makes it real, even if it may also be shallow. The movie stutters, slips sideways and back, and circles around--and in the end, says more about modern romance than a dozen Hollywood romantic comedies. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite is good if your soul is french!

God is Great, And I'm Not is a comedy about the french spirit of facing feelings and the philosophy of being side by side with your faith in love-spiritual, earthly and self-loving, which means, at one certain point, feeling the love and life as french people do.
It's useless to atch it if you're not used to the french language or the french sight of making movies. You won't like it, you won't understand it, you'll find it boring, and it is not!
I'm not saying this is a great work of Pascalle Bailly, because it isn't at all, but adorable Michèle (performed by adorable Audrey Tautou is a 20-year-old tornado. With a bouncing, perfectly round Afro and a job posing for fashion photography, she boldly describes herself as a "top model," though her miniature physical size and girlish grin reveals her subdued, searching interior. Overloaded with passion and personality, she seeks a way to channel her spirituality into an identity. Buddhism works. So does Judaism, when she falls for François (Edouard Baer), a Jewish veterinarian. Her insistence that François prove his religious faith to her by observing Shabbat and obeying other rules causes him a lot of grief. But he adoringly complies. GOD IS GREAT, I'M NOT follows Michèle over a three-year period via the impulsive and always poetic exclamations she writes in her diary. The film shows how her aggressive attitude towards her family, François and all those she holds dear sometimes alienates her. She demands a lot of other people--mainly, that they live life with all the zest with which she has chosen to live her own, and sometimes those demands backfire on her. In total, GOD IS GREAT is an intense and beautiful film fueled by a powerful performance by Tautou, who rules the screen, and an inspired script from director Pascale Bailly.
I insist: if you don't LIVE in france, or have ever done, or if you're not used to French sight of life and faith, go buy another movie. This might sound too european for you!

August 29, 2008

A girl given to extremes, and a film without a good ending...

Audrey Tautou is one of my favorite French actresses, and that is the reason why I decided to watch this film. I remember that before renting "God Is Great, and I'm Not" ("Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite") I thought that if Tatou was in a movie, the movie couldn't be too bad. I don't believe that anymore. She is a wonderful and incredibly charismatic actress, but she can make mistakes, and this is one.

In this film Tatou plays Michelle, a beautiful young woman that works as a model and wants to find the inner balance she lacks in a religion. That is the reason why she goes from being Catholic to Buddhist, and then ponders the idea of converting to Judaism as she falls in love with Francois (Edouard Baer), a secular Jew. The problem is that, after some time, Francois is not "Jew enough" for her, something to be expected as Michelle is given to extremes. That wreaks havoc on their relationship, something that this film shows to perfection.

Now, why do I have problems with "God Is Great, and I'm Not"? Why don't I like is as much as "Amélie", if the plot I just talked about isn't contrived or trite? From my point of view, the reasons are many, but I will save you some time and just point out the more important one, that is that this film seems unfinished. I am not talking about an open ending (like the ending of Rohmer's "A summer tale", a film I love), but rather about the kind of ending that makes you wonder whether the dvd you rented is a fake copy that lacks part of the film you just finished watching. Have you ever felt like that? Then you can understand how I felt after spending more than an hour and half watching this film... Not recommended.

Belen Alcat August 30, 2006

Audrey converting to Judaism

This movie is very original in that it shows us a star thinking of converting to Judaism. In France, no less. This is not your everyday romantic comedy. I was surprised to see one of my favorite actresses converting to Judaism onscreen. And not some exotic form of Judaism, as with Madonna and Dolly Parton and the Kabballah. Just ordinary Judaism, Baruch attaw adonoi and all that. Don't turn out the lights on Friday night, avoid pork, run of the mill Judaism.

Audrey is cute. I'd go to the synagogue with her if that would make her happy. I'd go to church too, to sit there and hold her hand.

Audrey seems a bit silly when she takes the Bible seriously. Does anyone really believe that nonsense? It belongs on the library shelf next to Greek mythology. Six day creation, a sadistic and vengeful god punishing all future women for Eve's disobedience, a world where extraterrestrials eat psychedelic fruit for wisdom and eat magical fruit for immortality, and create gardeners to slave for them so they don't have to water the trees. What utter nonsense. But Audrey wants to believe in something, apparently, even that.

I didn't understand why Francois broke up with her, if that is what happened. Or why she broke up with him. I didn't really follow what was going on there. I didn't really understand their relationship at all.

But it is a very different movie, for two reasons. One is the presence of cute Audrey. She's about as cute as Audrey Hepburn. The other is that she is interested in converting to Judaism. This movie is worth a look for those two reasons. I can't think of a third. December 4, 2005

Starts and Stops: A Movie Trying to Find A Story

'Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite' is a little film by Pascale Bailly that spends a lot of time trying to tell a story in bits and pieces with numerous characters, interesting in and of themselves but confusing to the viewer, attempting to keep up with the breakneck speed of this French comedy. The saving grace is the presence of Audrey Tautou and a few other actors whose screen magnetism holds our interest.

Fresh from a breakup with a boyfriend Bertand (Mathieu Demy) top model Michèle (Tautou) is a wreck of a person flirting with all manner of religious outlets (Hindu, Buddhism, Catholicism, etc) trying to find something to make her crazy life make sense. She encounters a veterinarian François (Edouard Baer) who is a secular Jew (non-practicing, closeted, etc) and not only does she fall immediately into bed with him (and a next morning attempted suicide!) she begins to stalk him trying to embrace Judaism - a fact that at first drives François away and then a little mad himself. The manner in which Michèle and François study Judaism and all its graces and restrictions is (I think) the basis for the rest of the story: the filming technique of flashbacks and fragmentary moments and cutesy scribblings on pages are paced to confuse and make this simple story a maze to follow!

Along the way we meet some interesting types including Valérie (Julie Depardieu) who opens her door to her first psychology patient (Thierry Neuvic) and promptly falls in love with him; Ali (Atmen Kelif) who is Michèle's nutty fashion photographer and a number of others. There are funny moments, touching moments, absurd moments, but they are loosely strung together. In the end this is a fun film in which it is a bit trying to connect all the dots! In French, English, and Hebrew with subtitles. Grady Harp, September 05 September 17, 2005

I really liked it!

In my opinion, there are two reasons to watch this film. One, because of Audrey Tautou, and two, if one looks at this as a Jewish genre film. If one has no interest in either, just pass on the film.

As for Tautou, even if the film just had her searching for the best flavor of Jello, it would be worth watching. There just are some actors who have such a screen presence, one could even turn off the sound and enjoy them. Audrey qualifies. She is just so cute and quirky.

As for a Jewish genre film, scholars do look for deeper reasons for the romantic attraction of Jews and non-Jews. This film takes a look at one such situation, and by doing so, makes one think deeper on the subject, if one is inclined to do so. As such, I do think the film shined, as it was interesting and entertaining to watch the couple's relationship unfold.

I really can't argue with a lot of the criticisms of "God is Great, I'm Not". But, for the above two reasons, I really liked it. March 8, 2005

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