What an immersive byzantine delight the French dramedy “Auction” turns out to be.
The latest from writer-director Pascal Bonitzer (“The Young Karl Marx,” and he scripted “Gemma Bovery”) is a playfully malicious peek behind the scenes of big money art auctions and the schemers who run such businesses.
“Le tableau volé” it was titled in France, “The Stolen Painting.” And the story of how that painting was stolen was nothing compared to the veritable soap opera melodrama that engulfs owners, the heirs who claim it as theirs and the conniving auction house that will “do anything” to ensure they’re the ones who bring it to auction and everybody around them.
Every motive is suspect, every fresh character has an angle, no one is quite who they seem and not every loose end will be tied up when all is said and done and lawyered and gaveled home in this dry but featherweight and fun comic mystery.
André Masson is a top dog auctioneer at Scottie’s of Paris, an Aston Martin-driving big shot with a watch collection that would feed the poor in some small countries, and a smooth talker who will weather an aged prospective client’s bigotry and familial vindictiveness to land a sale.
This job, André (Alex Lutz) explains to young intern Aurore (Louise Chevillotte), has its “Indiana Jones” moments of discovery. But most of the time, “You’re soliciting like a whore,” (in French with English subtitles).
Aurore is a little too quick to declare she’ll be “happy to whore” for him. We wonder about their history, the sexual tension and the baggage each brings to the table.
What André means is that lying, withholding, fluffing and bluffing are all a part of the job, on or off the clock. We get a glimpse of his standing among the swells who run Scottie’s, fellows who figure the gift of a collectible book on “The Art of Crawling,” how to be a “courtesan,” is insulting enough, until André’s rejoinder pops their entitled bubble.
“I admire you doesn’t mean I respect you,” doesn’t put him in his place either.
But when a “lost” painting that he’s certain is a “fake” turns up, André’s own classism gets the better of him. He practically spits out words like “moonlighting factory worker” (Arcadi Redeff) from the unfashionable city of “Mulhouse“ who has the painting when describing the “lost” Egon Schiele version of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” turns out to be real.
Nobody uses the word “provenance” to describe the story that André and his “specialist, not expert” ex-wife Bertina (Léa Drucker) tell of this “Sunflowers” painting’s history, when it was painted, who bought it and when it was lost.
But as the lost work’s history becomes clear, so does that of the experienced liar Aurore, the putting-on-airs André, the too accomodating Bertina and the too-blase-for-this-case lawyer (Nora Hamzawi) that the young factory worker Martin retained.
Bonizter could have titled the film “Provenance,” with all of the faux snobbery and skullduggery and side-eye scheming that goes on among the alleged “to the manner born.”
We cringe at the way “Sunflowers” left its owner’s hands, and fear for the painting’s safety, as Martin has young working class friends who take an awfully keen interest in his possible newfound wealth. We try to guess what twist involving this or that character’s motives and backstory will come into play. And we wonder if the spokesman for the “rightful heirs” (Doug Rand, beautifully unreadable) isn’t leaning into his “righteous Jew” pose a tad too hard to be believed.
Lutz and Drucker give perfectly modulated turns as people with a shared personal history and a still relevant professional one. Bertina and André’s reaction to seeing their prize in person for the first time, hung in a well-kept working class house, right next to a dart board, is perfect. They laugh in shock, delight, horror and awe.
And Chevillotte is adept at all the tricks pathological liars use, lying to get in jams and to get out of them. Her story may be a sidebar, but it’s every bit as fascinating as the main plot thread — damaged and devious and learning on the job how to throw a spanner into the works, or how others might accomplish that.
“Auction” is good, underhanded fun, and even the loose ends that Bonitzer leaves hanging — perhaps this had a longer cut at some point — leave one uncertain about how this high-stakes poker game will play out or who might upend the table with not-quite-all-their-cards on it for that final hand.
Rating: unrated
Cast: Alex Lutz, Léa Drucker,
Louise Chevillotte, Arcadi Radeff, Doug Rand and Nora Hamzawi.
Credits: Scripted and directed by Pascal Bonitzer. A Menemsha Films release.
Running time: 1:31
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