Love, Etc. 1999

Teen actress turned female lead Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Little Thief, Jane Eyre) plays Marie, an eccentri, introverted art restorer who decides itís high time she began making two cups of coffee every morning instead of one. Wading through a pile of responses to her personal ads, she happens on Benoit (Yvan Attal): methodical, responsible, lacking in self-confidence. Touched by his shyness - and the photo of his best friend Pierre that he sends with his response - Marie meets, courts and methodically, impulsively marries Benoit. At exactly this moment, Pierre (Charles Berling, Dry Cleaning) realizes that he too is daft in love with Marie. What follows is an obliquely tragic, sometimes outlandish tale of two people trying to behave properly as they wreck the happiness of the other person most dear to them. Marie valiantly denies to herself that she is interested in Pierre. Pierre indulges in every form of arrogant, clumsy, and finally humble seduction imaginable, from bombarding Marie with gargantuan bouquets to phoning her from his observation post across the street from her house, to taking an interest in her work, to learning to respect her to the extent that he refuses to make love to her.