Souvenir

In this offbeat romantic comedy, an aging assembly-line worker at a paté factory (Isabelle Huppert) nurses a crush on the newest employee, a handsome young boxer (Kévin Azaïs); he reciprocates after recognizing her as the same woman who, years earlier, competed as a pop diva in the equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest. Before long the smitten boxer has abandoned his career and declared himself her new manager, mounting a show business comeback for her that includes some of the finest fairs and nursing homes in Belgium. Huppert may be the only French actress currently working whose name above the title can land a movie in U.S. art-house theaters, which may explain why director Bavo Defurne allowed her to perform her own songs even though her voice is so bad her shower would beg her to be quiet. On the other hand, Huppert proves the old adage that acting is reacting, and she can do wonderful things with a line like “My father thinks you’re great—and that bugs my mother.” In French with subtitles.