Movie · 2000 · Drama, Comedy, Romance · 1h 52m · French
Curator score: 7.1/10 (34.8K ratings)
Overview
Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.1/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.70/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Agnès Jaoui
Production
Les Films A4, France 2 Cinéma, Canal+
Cast
Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Anne Alvaro, Alain Chabat, Gérard Lanvin, Christiane Millet, Wladimir Yordanoff, Brigitte Catillon, Raphaël Defour, Anne Le Ny, Xavier de Guillebon, Sam Karmann, Robert Bacri, Michel Caccia, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, humane French romantic comedy-drama about class, taste, and the awkward ways people learn to see one another. It’s witty without being glib, observant about social performance, and quietly moving in how it turns snobbery into tenderness.
Best for
viewers who like character-driven French comedies
fans of romances built on social friction and emotional intelligence
people interested in class, culture, and status games
audiences who enjoy dialogue-rich ensemble storytelling
Skip if
you want a fast-paced plot or big comic set pieces
you prefer broad, high-concept romance
subtle social satire and talky scenes are not your thing
Overview
The Taste of Others is one of those films that makes manners feel like a battlefield. It watches people misread one another through class, education, and cultural capital, then slowly discovers the vulnerability underneath the posturing. The comedy comes from recognition rather than punchlines, which gives the film a lived-in, adult texture.
Worth noting
What makes it especially appealing is how it refuses to flatten any of its characters into types. Castella is crude but not stupid, Clara is elegant without being aloof, and the supporting figures all carry their own private compromises. The film is attentive to speech, gesture, and the tiny humiliations of trying to become someone else’s idea of “better.”
Bottom line
It also has a distinctly French pleasure in conversation, performance, and social observation. Beneath the wit is a genuine romantic optimism: taste can be learned, but so can empathy. That balance of bite and warmth is what keeps the film resonant long after it ends.
Top Letterboxd reviews
lino (4.5★) · 560 likes
- à quoi tu penses?
- j’pense pas jm’emmerde
- on dirait que tu penses quand tu t’emmerdes
russman (3★) · 367 likes
Seriously disappointed in the lack of cannibalism in this film
Nina Salander (4★) · 363 likes
I was aloneI was alone in the rain and there was clouds in my brainThen, she arrived with the sun and my life becomed funHer voice is like a song, her eyes are so so strongWhen I look at this woman, my heart gets a tanShe teach me english but that is not the only thing she teach
Bacri tu nous manque
morgane (3.5★) · 272 likes
the inherent comedy of alain chabat playing the flute
zoé🦋 (3.5★) · 268 likes
c’est le comfort movie de pierre bourdieu ça je reconnais