Before he brought us the polarizing 2024 crime musical Emilia Pérez, the Palme d’Or winning 2015 Dheepan, and the 2009 critically acclaimed gangster film A Prophet, director Jacques Audiard brought us the complex romance thriller Read My Lips in 2001. The French film falls in line with the common trend of Audiard deconstructing familiar stories and weaving complex character studies in genre films.
Vincent Cassel as Paul in READ MY LIPS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The story follows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) and Paul (Vincent Cassel), two social outcasts who are at first repellent towards each other and then, through unique connection, start to trust and help each other. Carla is a hard-of-hearing employee at a construction company who is silently ridiculed by her co-workers; Paul is an ex-con looking for a break and dealing with having to report updates to his parole officer Masson (Olivier Perrier) who is pressuring him to find employment. Looking for a new assistant, Carla hires Paul who, after a bit of awkwardness and tension, enlists Carla in a risky scheme that could dangerously change things forever. What sets Read My Lips apart from other romance thrillers is its subversive slow burn, building intently into this strange connection between these two characters and not going into the usual “star-crossed lovers” trope. The attraction is awkward, vulnerable, but also natural. As their connection is fleshed out and the stakes are raised to a thrilling, tense level, the end result is more complex and emotionally labyrinthine than originally imagined.
L-R: Vincent Cassel as Paul and Emmanuelle Devos as Carla in READ MY LIPS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The theme of marginalized outcasts learning to feel for each other, or just “feel,” is stunningly realized not just by Audiard’s intense direction but by Devos’s (Coco Before Chanel; The Beat That My Heart Skipped) and Cassel’s (The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan; Black Swan) fantastic performances. In her César Award-winning performance of Carla, Emmanuelle Devos delivers an indelible performance of a lonely woman that does not have many peers, deals with sexist ridicule from her co-workers, and is not entirely understanding of the concept of love. Every intrigued glance (as Carla reads others’ lips, hence the title) and every sly smile with a hint of femme fatale potential is piercingly felt in Audaird’s close ups. Devos’s presence is felt through most of the film and it’s Cassel’s borderline volatile performance that balances her’s perfectly. Known for playing the nuanced bad boy role well, Cassel adds another layer to the archetype in the role of Paul. Toggling between being on the verge of lashing out and recoiling in shame and embarrassment, Cassel’s performance is a physical one that dominates every time we follow his character. His shiftiness, his glare, his all-around tough exterior, and vulnerable interior leave an impression when he comes on the screen and it is the perfect push-pull to Devos’s facial performance. As Carla and Paul’s relationship builds to a dangerous quid pro quo, Audiard includes a strange subplot including Paul’s parole officer Masson who is searching for his missing wife. At first glance, this subplot feels out of place until the film gets to its shocking climax where the film’s theme of trust in relationships is brought full circle like never before.
Emmanuelle Devos as Carla in READ MY LIPS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Jacques Audiard delivers a film filled with unique depth and complex emotion on the level of a Claire Denis film (High Life; Beau Travail), shot with a palpable intensity. In one of the Criterion release’s supplemental features, Audiard states “once you know the rules of the genre, you know how to bend them.” This is a great early film from Jacques Audiard that showcases his love for deconstruction and subversion of expectations. As he avoids tackling the romance thriller genre straight and dodges its tropes and traps, he leaves the audience with a unique film that sits with you after the credits roll. It’s the ambitious swinging for the fences that made his latest, Emilia Pérez, the polarizing hit it became. This Blu-ray digitally restored Criterion Collection release has a good mix of supplemental features including an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau, an afterword by Audiard, deleted scenes featuring commentary by Audiard, and an audio commentary with Cassel and Devos. For any lovers of convention-breaking films and unique romantic thrillers, this release is a must-own.
Read My Lips 4K HD Special Features:
- *NEW* 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jacques Audiard and director of photography Mathieu Vadepied, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- *NEW* afterword by Audiard
- Audio commentary with actors Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos
- Program about the making of the film featuring interviews with Audiard, Vadepied, and coscreenwriter Tonino Benacquista
- Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Audiard
- Trailer
- *NEW* English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
- *NEW* cover by Century
Available now on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray September 23rd, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Criterion Collection Read My Lips webpage.
Share this:
Categories: Home Video, Reviews
Leave a Reply