Bluff (Simon-Olivier Fecteau, 2007): Canada

Bluffing is never an easy task and in the small film from Canada, “Bluff,” makes a statement about the little lies we tell and the lessons we learn from them.

Shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival the film charms and entertains with a style that is fun and fresh. “Bluff” is filmed in French but don’t worry there are English subtitles for those who don’t speak the romance language. The writing on the screen never confuses and doesn’t get in the way. The characters convey the proper emotion so no one in the audience ever wonders what is happening even if the written dialogue was missed.

Set in one apartment around a number of characters the film documents the events of the tenants that inhabited the small space over a period of years. There is the boxing champ father, the couple with a stolen painting, the cheating women and her spouse, the man with an interview and the land lord and the demolition team.

The actors all deliver their lines with great comedy and conviction. Simon-Olivier Fecteau, the director, also played the character of Julien, a man who has a job interview yet refuses to go making up excuses to why he can’t attend. He plays the character with an awkward wit and a procrastination that we can all relate to. Michel and Josee, (Alexis Martin and Isabelle Blais,) play the couple who have been approached and offered money for a painting they may or may not have thrown away. The two bounce remarks off each other as they search the apartment in a rush finding everything but the painting. Martin and Blais bring the sarcasm that the film loves and needs.

Set design was grand, changing the apartment from tenant to tenant with new pictures, objects and strangeness. The dialogue was quick, smart and funny having the audience laughing but not to the point of tears.

With the director seen on screen the direction comes off as involved and personal. Fecteau places every movement where it should be while at the same time allowing the actors to take there mark and make it look almost improvised. The camera is often motionless in the small set that is the apartment, most of the action taking place in the living room.

This clever farce brings together the exaggerated white lies we tell. Sometimes making things up to keep the ones we care about under a certain protection. While telling a bluff only works until someone calls that bluff, this gem of a flick doesn’t deceive.