''Little White Lies'' (french: Les Petits Mouchoirs) is a 2010 French

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by

Guillaume Canet Guillaume Canet (; born 10 April 1973) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper. Canet began his career in theatre and television before moving to film. He starred in several films like ''Joyeux Noël'', '' Love Me If ...

, starring an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

François Cluzet François Cluzet (born 21 September 1955) is a French film and theatre actor. Cluzet has collaborated with many important European and American directors, including Claude Chabrol, Bertrand Tavernier, Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland, Robert Altm ...

Marion Cotillard Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, film producer, singer, and environmentalist who is widely known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions. She has received ...

Benoît Magimel Benoît Magimel (; born 11 May 1974) is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best Ac ...

Gilles Lellouche Gilles Lellouche (; born 5 July 1972) is a French actor. He started his career as a director. Lellouche has appeared in more than fifty films since 1995. He was nominated twice for a César Award; in 2006 for Most Promising Actor and in 2011 f ...

Jean Dujardin Jean Edmond Dujardin (; born 19 June 1972) is a French actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian in Paris before guest starring in comedic television programmes and films. He first came to prominence with the cult TV series ...

Laurent Lafitte Laurent Lafitte (born 22 August 1973) is a French actor. He is known for playing the role of Patrick in ''Elle''. In March 2016 he was named as the host of the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival The 69th Cannes Fil ...

Valérie Bonneton Valérie Bonneton (born 5 April 1970) is a French stage, film and television actress. Life and career Valérie Bonneton was born in Somain, Nord department. Her father was an insurance salesman and her mother a housewife. She grew up in nei ...

and

Pascale Arbillot Pascale Arbillot (born 17 April 1970) is a French actress. She is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences; however, soon after, she decided to become an actress. She has appeared in films, on television and in the theatre. Fil ...

. The original French title is ''Les Petits Mouchoirs'', which means "the small handkerchiefs". The film was released in France on 20 October 2010. A sequel, ''Nous finirons ensemble'' (''Little White Lies 2'') was released in 2019 and features a surprise and unwanted visit of the group to Max's house, which he is trying to sell, for his birthday.

Plot

On leaving a Paris nightclub late at night, Ludo (

) rides away on his scooter and is broadsided by a speeding truck that ran a red light. Lying between life and death in the hospital, Ludo is visited by his band of longtime friends, who decide that the gruesome crash should not prevent them from embarking on their summer holidays. Prior to the trip, another major problem arises when one of the friends, osteopath Vincent (

), confesses his attraction to restaurateur Max (

). Both are married, and Max clearly is not interested, so when they arrive later with their families at his seaside cottage, tension is high. The group's stress level is further increased by pot-smoking rebel Marie (

), lovesick actor Eric (

) and the even more lovesick Antoine (

), all of whom are suffering from failed or failing relationships.

Cast

as Max Cantara *

as Marie *

as Vincent Ribaud *

as Eric *

as Ludo *

as Antoine *

as Véronique Cantara *

as Isabelle Ribaud *

Louise Monot Louise Monot (born 30 December 1981) is a French actress and model. Known as the face of the French cosmetics company Bourjois, she is also known for portraying one of the schoolgirls, Marine Lavor, on the television series, ''La vie devant nous ...

as Lea *

Anne Marivin Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

as Juliette * Joël Dupuch as Jean-Louis * Hocine Mérabet as Nassim *

Maxim Nucci Maxime Rodolphe Nouchy, known as Maxim Nucci and Yodelice (born 23 February 1979 in Créteil), is a French singer-songwriter who performs in English. He has released five albums as of 2014: "Maxim Nucci" (2006), ''Tree of Life'' (2009), ''Cardio ...

as Franck * Paula Garcia as Paola

Production

The script took five months to write. The cast lived for three days in May at the house which would be used as a principal filming location, so it would feel familiar to them when they returned in the summer. The film began production in August 2009 and ended in October. The shooting took place in Paris and

Cap Ferret Cap Ferret (English: ''Cape Ferret'') is a headland, situated at the south end of the ''commune'' of Lège-Cap-Ferret in the French ''department'' of Gironde and ''region'' of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The headland takes the form of a spit, which sep ...

Title

The French title ''Les Petits Mouchoirs'' refers to a French expression ''mettre dans sa poche avec son mouchoir par-dessus'', which means "to put something in your pocket with your handkerchief on top of it", in other words, to keep something hidden, try to forget about it, not want to think about it.

Release

The film premiered at the

2010 Toronto International Film Festival The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented '' Score: A Hockey Musical'', a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. '' La ...

. It was released in France on 20 October 2010 through EuropaCorp Distribution, who launched it on over 550 screens.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film three and a half stars out of four, remarking, "The American film that comes to mind is ''The Big Chill'' ..It is the oyster fisherman who finally regards them all and presents the plain-spoken truth. What he says was waiting for someone to say. Joel Dupuch says it so well I hope he acts again. He has the presence. There are times when ''Little White Lies'' seems to meander, until we realize it knows exactly where it is going." The film was panned by Philippe Azoury of ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

'', who thought it was too long, strangely cast, and that all of its female characters were stereotypes. ''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...

s Marie Sauvion was more ambivalent and divided the review in a pros and a cons section. The pros were that she found the genre in itself sympathetic, and how the film manages to use individual scenes to give the viewer a feeling of participation and shared enjoyment. On the negative side, she thought it was too unsubtle and predictable, and uses too much music to intensify emotional scenes, "In case we didn't understand when to be moved?" The film won London's Favourite French Film award in 2011.

Music

The music in the film is mainly American with English lyrics.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little White Lies 2010 films 2010s French-language films 2010 comedy-drama films Films directed by Guillaume Canet French comedy-drama films EuropaCorp films 2010 LGBT-related films LGBT-related comedy-drama films French LGBT-related films 2010s French films