Shall We Kiss

Well, I watched a lovely little movie about consequences. It's French, but it is nevertheless light and smiley despite the heavy underlying subject.

Shall We Kiss (2007) starts with a beautiful man meeting a beautiful woman on the the streets of a French town. He helps her out, they have dinner, they are very interested in each other. They are gorgeous and it seems logical that they will end up in the sack.

But the woman doesn't want to kiss him. She says she has a personal reason for this, and starts to tell him a tale. In the tale, we meet a second couple, and that couple should not kiss, but they do. We learn about the consequences of that kiss, while occasionally hopping back to the non-kissing couple.

This is a serious topic. Usually this would be very melodramatic, with sobbing and bodice ripping sex. But this is a French movie, not American. Although these people take cheating and sex in stride, they have a serious desire to do the right thing. It's very humorous, yet sad at the same time.

Also, almost everything in the movie is beige and white - incredibly sterile. It looks like it was shot on a limited set, like an after school special. Yet this works. These people are so polite and proper, the bare set helps with the tone. Also, there are some funny pieces of decoration: as a couple slides down a wall in passion, the viewer sees bio-hazard signs and a skull and cross bones on the wall. It's quite simple and effective.