There are several good reasons to like this film ... Karin Viard, Melanie Doutey, Marina Fois, Jeanne Balibar ... you can see where I'm going with this. There's is also a gorgeous touch when writer-director Maiwenn has Bertrand Blier 'direct' Karin Viard in a movie-within-a movie and it's gorgeous because Blier himself made a movie not a million miles away from this called - wait-for-it - Actors. With this and a follow-up movie, Poliss, Maiwenn enters the ranks of French female directors to be reckoned with and now, in my book at least, she is right up there with Danielle Thompson, Nicole Garcia, Toni Marshall, Marion Vernoux, Anne Fontaine, Agnes Varda and the rest. Okay, it's slightly wacky, and the songs aren't as classy as those in 8 Women, another cast-to-die-for movie on similar lines but the truth is that if you love French cinema this is one to wallow in.

Are all actresses unstable, neurotic and slightly insane ? It seems that, at least, they all suffer from psychological break down from time to time and can easily be depressed and confused. Everyone plays his own role in this film, and you may identify some of them. This is the story : Maïwenn (Haute Tension) has decided to make a documentary showing actresses in their real life. You see her, making and filming relatively famous actresses, playing both a role in this film, and being themselves in the documentary.

So it is a film made of several layers, in this tradition of film of a film, coming from "La nuit américaine" by François Truffaut. The problem with this kind of story, is that it can be amusing mainly for the people knowing the actors of French cinema. I don't think it can be so much fun outside the French community. It could be interesting to see if Hollywood could remake it with American stars.

Anyway, Charlotte Rampling proves that she can still find a role after 60. But the most hilarious sketch is during a diner with Linh Dan Pham and her parents speaking in Vietnamese. Overall, I would say that my first bad feeling on this film was wrong. It may talk a lot, but it is not pretentious or boring. Congratulations to Maïwenn, both as actress, writer and director.