Venus Beauty Institute

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Venus Beauty Institute ★★½ 1998 (R)

Fortyish Angele (Baye) works at a Paris beauty salon along with proprietor Nadine (Ogier) and younger colleagues Samantha (Seigner) and Marie (Tantou). Angele refuses to fall in love and picks up men strictly for sex—until she's pursued by Antoine (Le Bihan), a young sculptor who insists he fell in love with her at first sight. (He basically stalks her but Angele is intrigued rather than repulsed by his devotion.) The Institute also has a parade of frequently neurotic customers in romantic dilemmas. French with subtitles. 105m/C VHS, DVD . FR Nathalie Baye, Bulle Ogier, Samuel Le Bihan, Jacques Bonnaffe, Mathilde Seigner, Robert Hossein, Claire Nebout, Audrey Tautou; D: Tonie Marshall; W: Tonie Marshall; C: Gerard de Battista; M: Khalil Chahine. Cesar ‘00: Director (Marshall), Film, Screenplay.