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Read My Lips Details

2001 Certificate 15
  • 70
  • from 4498 members

In its opening shot, READ MY LIPS shows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) inserting her hearing aids and getting ready for work. But it's evident that her hearing problem does not hold her back as she throws herself into answering the constantly ringing phones at her job as an unappreciated secretary for an architecture firm. Swamped .. Read more

Starring Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier
Director Jacques Audiard
Genres Thriller, World Cinema

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Read My Lips

In its opening shot, READ MY LIPS shows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) inserting her hearing aids and getting ready for work. But it's evident that her hearing problem does not hold her back as she throws herself into answering the constantly ringing phones at her job as an unappreciated secretary for an architecture firm. Swamped with work, Carla asks her boss to hire an assistant for her, Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con who is trying to get his life back on track. To everyone else--her sexist coworkers and her sexy friend Annie--Carla is a dog with a disability. But to Paul, who is Carla's subordinate, she's a femme fatale. In Paul's life--to his parole officer and the two-bit thugs to whom he still owes money--he is an untrustworthy outcast and a bum. But to Carla, he is a secret weapon with skills (lock-picking, physical intimidation) that she needs. Likewise, Carla becomes Paul's secret weapon as her ability to read lips opens up a new world of possibilities to his plotting, criminal ways.
READ MY LIPS is a story of romance through and through, and, in its second half, a fast-moving and constantly flip-flopping heist drama. Once Carla and Paul really start working together, the tension between them only helps them along. Never trusting each other, never predictable in their actions, these characters imbue Jacques Audiard's masterful film with a breathtaking suspense that is simultaneously alluring and repellent.

Starring Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier, Olivia Bonamy, Bernard Alane, Cecile Samie
Director Jacques Audiard
Studio PATHE DISTRIBUTION
Run time DVD: 1 hr 53 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Thriller, World Cinema
Language DVD: French
Subtitles DVD: English
Released DVD: 10 Mar 2003
Production year: 2001
  • Critics' reviews (6) of Read My Lips

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    Director Jacques Audiard shrewdly manipulates both sound and audience expectation in this compelling critique of gender politics. However, he then opts for systematic thrills rather than concentrating on the meticulously established psychological intrigue between deaf secretary Emmanuelle Devos and thuggish parolee Vincent Cassel. Her ruthless pursuit of both professional advancement and personal revenge against those who have spurned her, is expertly realised in a chilling display of outward humility and simmering self-belief. But the narrative contrivances that predominate after Cassel's criminal past inevitably catches up with him, then disappointingly hijack this intense and unpredictable character study for more cynically commercial purposes.

    • Radio Times
  • "...The performances of the two leads are impeccable....[Cassel] has reined in his natural magnetism to excellent effect, but it is Devos whose performance absolutely has us in its power..."

    • Los Angeles Times
  • Most helpful member's review of Read My Lips

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  • 20 out of 21 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4.0 stars

    lip reading

    Another good french film...is it something in the water over there?

    The film, a delectable thriller/romance stars Emmanuele Devos as 'Carla'... more

      • Craig R. from Luton,England
  • Most recent members' review of Read My Lips

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4.0 stars

    A great film with fantastic use of sound and wonderful performances from the two leads.

      • A customer from BRIGHTON

Rating breakdown

4,498 Member ratings
  • 100
335
  • 90
397
  • 80
1,099
  • 70
980
  • 60
804
  • 50
404
  • 40
231
  • 30
126
  • 20
84
  • 10
38

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    • Read My Lips
      In its opening shot, READ MY LIPS shows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) inserting her hearing aids and getting ready for work. But it's evident that her hearing problem does not hold her back as she throws herself into answering the constantly ringing phones at her job as an unappreciated secretary for an ...