A One Mann’s Movies review of “Paul & Paulette Take a Bath” (2025, 4*, ’15’).
As we crawl out of a summer of mostly mindless popcorn blockbusters, the artistry of “Paul & Paulette Take A Bath” rushes through the senses like a sudden rainstorm on a parched cornfield. As with any arthouse film, it won’t be for everyone, but I personally was engrossed. What other film would include as a plot-point Elvis Presley’s pubes?!
Plot:
An American in Paris, struggling photographer Paul (Jérémie Galiana), meets the Parisian Paulette (Marie Benati) while she is mentally re-enacting the execution of Marie Antoinette in the Place de la Concorde. For Paulette is obsessed in ‘touching’ history, the more morbid the better. Paul is immediately smitten by the complex creature, but Paulette is insistent that their relationship remains platonic. So, does that negate Paul and Paulette ever sharing a bath?
Certification:
UK: ’15’; US: ‘R’. (At the time of writing, the film had not received a rating from the BBFC, but I think it will be rated a 15/R because of strong language and some nudity.)
Talent:
Starring: Marie Benati, Jérémie Galiana, Fanny Cottençon, Gilles Graveleau, Laurence Vaissiere, Margot Joseph.
Directed by: Jethro Massey.
Written by: Jethro Massey.
Running Time: 1h 49m.
Summary:
Positives:
- The film is effortlessly sexy as we follow the pair’s emerging relationship with each other and their ‘significant others’.
- The script is tight and engrossing as we follow P&P on a road trip to Austria to “Meet the Parents”.
- The soundtrack is beautifully chosen from a wide range of tracks, most new to me but perfectly fitting.
Negatives:
- A meltdown segment around the Batalan terrorist incident went too far for me. I didn’t think it quite worked.
Full Review:
Complex and interesting characters.
Paul (Jérémie Galiana) and Paulette (Marie Benati) both make for intriguing characters.
- Paul is the more steady of the characters, unsure about his own talents for photography (we see him forlornly sitting alone in his ‘exhibition’ space) and stuck in a dull job with an older boss Valérie (Laurence Vaissiere) who turns out to be an ex-one-night-stand that wants that to be multiple-night-stands. (“HR?! A ruling over here please!”)
- Paulette is a lesbian with bisexual tendencies (especially where sex will get her a posh place to stay for a while). She is torn between her feelings for Paul as ‘a nice man’ and her tempestuous love for Margerita (Margot Joseph). Her obsession with death and murder – always being “attracted to the gutter” – seems at the unhealthy end of the ‘history-geek’ scale. “It’s not about touching things…” she says to Paul.. “it’s about feeling them”. But we gain more insight into her troubled mind when we meet her complex parents, Charlotte (Fanny Cottençon) and Gilles (Gilles Graveleau) in an uncomfortable variant of “Meet The Parents”.
So, the film’s interest for me is in the interactions that these two very different people find themselves engaging in. Paul is magnetically attracted to the Bohemian Paulette, but at the same time infuriated by her. “You’re always putting on a show”, he complains, “It must be exhausting”.
A horrible history of Paris and beyond.
I didn’t expect to learn any new history from this film, but I did. At one point the film walks around the remains of an “ethnological exposition” in a Paris park where in the mid-19th century, natives from France’s colonies around the world were forced to live in recreations of their villages as a sort of human zoo. Unbelievable! At one point, according to Paul, a set of exhibits was implemented under the Eiffel Tower itself: a fact neatly glossed over for modern-day visitors to the ‘fun attraction’. (This wiki article provides an insight into the practice, which was Europe-wide.)
The film also neatly covers other infamous murders and terrorist events in Paris and Munich. At one point, Paul sits at ‘Hitler’s’ desk and comments that “The world’s worst crimes are committed at a desk”: great line.
During these historical interludes, we get some historical photos of the events edited into the film… very effectively done.
An erotic strip-tease of a film.
A French art-house film…. so lots of gratuitous nudity and sex then? Well, actually, no. I’ve judged this as a ’15/R’ certificate due to language and nudity, but really – given the subject matter – director Jethro Massey is remarkably restrained in his film-making.
The story gives our extremely attractive co-star, Marie Benati, plenty of opportunity for the exposure of bare flesh – sex in a Munich apartment; a nude photographic session, bondage sex – but Massey metes this out in very carefully measured portions. A shot of side-boob here, a shot of top-boob there, some well-honed buttocks, etc.
Even when Paul and Paulette do share a bath (damn, I knew I couldn’t keep that a secret for long!), with Paulette lying between Paul’s legs, it’s all very chaste apart from one moment where Paulette ‘chooches’ up in the bath and we get a briefest flash of breasts. In another erotically-charged scene, Paul ever-so-slowly peels off the Scotch tape from Paulette’s wrists after a sex session.
The result of this ‘more is less’ approach is that I found the film to be effortlessly sexy and extremely erotic.
The bath and an over-stretch on the emotion.
The basis for the bath scene in Hitler’s apartment is, of course, related to the famous bath that war-photographer Lee Miller took on the very day that Hitler committed suicide. This was featured last year in the film “Lee”, with Kate Winslet of course taking the dip. That’s another pretty neat association of history and ‘place’ that the film adopts (even if it ultimately turns out to be something of a fallacy).
The historical events referenced conclude with the Bataclan terrorist murders from November 2015, an event that Paul confesses he audibly witnessed. At this point, the narrative rather over-stretched itself for me, with Paul having a breakdown over the enormity of the history he was ‘touching’. I’m afraid I didn’t really get what the filmmaker was trying to convey with this: it didn’t really work for me.
A funky soundtrack.
There’s also a really interesting soundtrack to the film, with some well-chosen songs from artists I have never personally heard of. It’s got something of a laid-back jazz vibe to it. The music choices really fits the changing mood of the film beautifully.
Limited subtitles.
In case you feel put off by a French-set film due to subtitles, I should add that the majority of the film is taken from Paul’s viewpoint, so is primarily in English. There are some French interchanges that are subtitled, but this is limited. (At least, I *think* the primary language of the film is English, but after seeing the AI-dubbing skills presented in “Watch The Skies“, I’m not sure you can ever be too sure now!)
Summary Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this one and will look forward to seeing it in the cinemas when released. It is currently tabled for a UK and Ireland release on September 5th 2025.
What makes this all the more impressive is that this is the debut film from British-French director Jethro Massey. It won the Critics’ Week Audience Award and the Cinema & Arts Award at the Venice Film Festival, so other people at least agree with me on this one.
It’s a film, in the disguise of an over-arching romantic drama, that neatly analyses our connection to past events and – particularly – the places where those events actually happened. I commend it to the House.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89TSx6XZzpA.
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