With a Friend Like Harry...

Dominik Moll directs this black comedy about a family outing gone to hell. The film opens with Michel ( Laurent Lucas ) and Claire ( Mathilde Seigner ) on the edge of a nervous breakdown in a cramped hot car with three screaming children. At a roadside rest stop, Michel meets Harry ( Sergi Lopez ) who, after some encouragement, recalls that they went to high school together. Harry and his girlfriend Plum ( Sophie Guillemin ) weasel their way into Michel and Claire's life, and soon the two are following the haggard family to their tumbledown summer cottage. Though he seems friendly enough, Michel and Claire start to notice that something is not quite right with their newfound friend — he recites from memory a poem Michel wrote 20 years ago, he suddenly buys them an expensive new Jeep when their old car dies, and he has a tendency to kill people who get on his nerves. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. — Jonathan Crow