Rosalie Blum * * * *

Victor shows us the simple pleasures of stalking

There are many impressive things about this film, but the most impressive is the story itself. It’s told to us with flashback and flashforward. Frequently you don’t realise what you are watching is a future event until another scene explains how we got there.   But even if it had been told to us in a simple chronological form it would have still been impressive, it is such a clever and intriguing story. Apparently it is adapted from a graphic novel.

  Set in a small town in France, Vincent runs a hairdressing salon. A business he’d inherited from his father.  Now in his thirties, he lives in the same apartment block as his mother, a demented woman who emotionally manipulates and bullies him.  Other than a cousin who delights in the risky business of having affairs with married women, Victor has no friends.  Though he has a fiance who lives in Paris; but she discourages Victor’s every attempt to go visit her.

  One day Victor meets a woman who works in a grocery store in a nearby village and for some reason becomes fascinated with her - but not in a romantic way. Next thing you know, Vincent has abandoned his own morals and become the stalker of a woman we come to know as Rosalie Blum.

  Rosalie Blum is no fool and she catches on that she is being followed by a stranger. Especially when she notices her rubbish bin has been rummaged through.  At first she wonders if he might be “Thomas”. Thomas, is a significant person from her past.  

  Rosalie has no friends it appears, but she has a niece, Aude, a pretty girl in her twenties who has achieved "absolutely nothing" with her life (her own observation). Aude shares an apartment with an eccentric guy who is trying to start a mini-circus.

  Rosalie asks Aude if she’ll stalk Vincent so the stalkee can find out more about the stalker.  Aude agrees to do it and recruits the help of her two  lay-about friends to help her. The three girls fancy themselves as detectives extraordinaire - they are very funny.  Especially when Rosalie Blum and Aude decide to take it to the next level and give Victor the stalker the wrong idea about the things Rosalie Blum does and the places she goes.

  We learn a lot about these entertaining and fascinating characters as the story unfolds - including who is Thomas.

  Rosalie Blum is an intriguing, funny, moving and absolutely charming film.  Highly recommended.