FOR PARENTS MAROONED WITH THEIR BABIES, STARVED OF THE CHANCE TO SEE EXCELLENT FILMS FOR MONTHS ON END, COMES FOR CRYING OUT ALLOWED. ONCE A MONTH, THE IFI WILL PUT ON A SPECIAL SCREENING FOR PARENTS-WITH BABIES.
Simply bring your bundle with you, park your buggy or pram with us, and enjoy the best film we have on that week. As the title suggests, there is no need to worry about the noise. Baby-changing facilities are provided, and we have a cafe for lunch afterwards. Babies must be 12 months or younger, and adults pay normal admission price. RESERVATIONS STRICTLY REQUIRED: 01-6795744

JUNE SCREENING: PRICELESS

A GOLD DIGGER ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA UNEXPECTEDLY MEETS HER MATCH IN A MILD-MANNERED BARTENDER IN PRICELESS.
Free-spending sylph Irene (Audrey Tautou) enters the bar of a Biarritz hotel after her sixtysomething sugar daddy Jacques (Vernon Dobtcheff) conks out in their room instead of celebrating her birthday. Through an amusing set of circumstances, Irene mistakes lowly employee Jean (Gad Elmaleh) for a wealthy client. When the next morning reveals that Jean is closer to farcically poor than fabulously rich, the pragmatic Irene registers her mistake and moves on, but Jean is smitten.
A year later, Irene returns to the hotel with Jacques, but the embers with Jean are still smouldering. Out on her ear when Jacques correctly assesses the situation, Irene resents having to work to bag another gullible rich man to bankroll her existence. In retaliation, she cleans out financially the complicit and lovesick Jean. But the exquisitely set tables are turned when well-preserved and loaded widow Madeleine (Marie-Christine Adam) mistakes Jean for a practiced gigolo. Enjoying the best accommodations Monte Carlo has to offer, Irene tutors Jean in how to milk Madeleine for all she’s worth. But, although they won’t admit it, student and teacher would really rather have each other than cascading luxury goods. With an attention to wardrobe and accessories that’s a language unto itself, the film employs acerbic humour to paint a landscape in which everything can be bought or sold and authentic emotion is a professional impediment. Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise pioneered this template in 1932, but director Pierre Salvadori provides a better-than-average update whose morally queasy elements are mostly eluded to via dandy performances.—Lisa Nesselson.