A woman flies to France to confront her straying fiancé, but gets into trouble when the charming crook seated next to her uses her for smuggling.
French Kiss (1995) Online
Kate and Charlie have a perfect life planned out before them: buying a house, marriage, kids, the whole works. Kate's fear of flying keeps her in Canada while Charlie goes to Paris for a medical convention. While there Charlie is smitten by the lovely Juliette. He calls off the wedding with Kate and she nervously boards a plane to get him back. She ends up sitting next to the petty French thief Luc Teyssier. He hides a stolen necklace and smuggled grape vine in her bag to get it through customs. Her bag is stolen, the necklace apparently lost, and Kate and Luc head to Cannes -- Luc to find the necklace and Kate get Charlie back. Along the way, Kate and Luc begin having feelings for each other -- which change the course of their lives.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Meg Ryan | - | Kate |
 | Kevin Kline | - | Luc Teyssier |
 | Timothy Hutton | - | Charlie |
 | Jean Reno | - | Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon |
 | François Cluzet | - | Bob |
 | Suzan Anbeh | - | Juliette (as Susan Anbeh) |
 | Renée Humphrey | - | Lilly |
 | Michael Riley | - | M. Campbell |
 | Laurent Spielvogel | - | Concierge |
| Victor Garrivier | - | Octave |
| Élisabeth Commelin | - | Claire (as Elizabeth Commelin) |
| Julie Leibowitch | - | Olivia |
| Miquel Brown | - | Sgt. Patton |
| Louise Deschamps | - | Jean-Paul's Girl |
| Olivier Curdy | - | Jean-Paul's Boy |
Kevin Kline had a professor to coach him with the French to speak it as a Frenchman. He studied French during his Jr. High/High school years and a year in college. He didn't learn to speak it until he went to Alliance Française in New York.
Star Kevin Kline's part was originally earmarked for French actor Gérard Depardieu.
The film was originally titled "Paris Match" until Billy Crystal complained that people would get the film confused with his own movie, Vergiß Paris (1995).
First theatrical feature film as a producer of actress Meg Ryan.
When Kate (Meg Ryan) and Luc (Kevin Kline) are first talking in their room at Cannes, the French song "Verlaine" is playing. The track's lyrics include the wording "les sanglots longues des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur d'un langueur monotone" which translate into English as "the long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor". These words are from a poem called "Verlaine", and had been used in 1944 to form the code phrases that alerted the Resistance to the Allied invasion of France, and were depicted in the earlier epic World War II movie Der längste Tag (1962).
As the closing credits roll, Kate (Meg Ryan) asks Luc (Kevin Kline) to sing "that Bobby Darin song" and then begins to actually sing it . . . "Somewhere..." and Luc corrects her to state that it is a French song and begins to sing it in French, "La Mer". That song was originally written by Charles Trenet and then translated into English and recorded by Bobby Darin.
Director Lawrence Kasdan agreed to direct this film project because he had just been involved on a difficult production shoot on Wyatt Earp - Das Leben einer Legende (1994), would not have to write the screenplay first, and principal photography would involve a nice working holiday for he and his family in France.
"You can't leave Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower." At least twice, Kate misses seeing the tower, once as the car she is in passes the Trocadéro, and next when the tower lights go out at night, just right after she turns her head towards it. Then she sees, reflected in a shop window, the top of what she thinks is the tower, but when she turns to look, the buildings are hiding the entire view. Meanwhile, the window has been opened so that when she turns back, she can't even see the reflection. Finally, when she is leaving Paris, she sees it from the window of the train.
Timothy Hutton's character is named Charlie, short for Doctor Charles Lytton. In the original Pink Panther movies, Sir Charles Lytton was the true name of the cat burglar known as the Phantom, played by David Niven in one film and Christopher Plummer in another. Kevin Kline and Jean Reno, also starring in French Kiss (1995), were both in the new version of Der rosarote Panther (2006).
The picture's production house "Prufrock Pictures" is actress Meg Ryans production company.
The movie starred two actors who had both won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Timothy Hutton won his Oscar for Eine ganz normale Familie (1980) whilst Kevin Kline won his statuette for Ein Fisch namens Wanda (1988).
Star Kevin Kline once commented that friend and regular collaborator Lawrence Kasdan took on yet another genre with this movie - the screwball romantic comedy. Kasdan had previously directed such movies in such various genres as the suspense-thriller in Heißblütig - Kaltblütig (1981), the ensemble comedy-drama Der große Frust (1983), the melodrama Die Reisen des Mr. Leary (1988), the black comedy Ich liebe Dich zu Tode (1990), and the westerns Silverado (1985) and Wyatt Earp - Das Leben einer Legende (1994). Kasdan though had previously written the romantic comedy Zwei wie Katz und Maus (1981) but was not that movie's director.
First of two collaborations of actress Meg Ryan and actor Timothy Hutton who would both star in Serious Moonlight (2009) around fourteen years later,.
Fifth of six cinema movie collaborations [to date, September 2015] of actor Kevin Kline and director Lawrence Kasdan. The films include Silverado (1985), Grand Canyon - Im Herzen der Stadt (1991), French Kiss (1995), Der große Frust (1983), Darling Companion - Ein Hund fürs Leben (2012) and Ich liebe Dich zu Tode (1990).
The principal photography production period on this picture ran for about three months between mid-September and late-December 1994.
The eighth cinema movie directed by director Lawrence Kasdan.
One of two cinema movies [to date, April 2016] directed by Lawrence Kasdan starring actor Kevin Kline where the latter portrayed a European character. In French Kiss (1995), Kline plays a Frenchman, whereas in Ich liebe Dich zu Tode (1990), Kline portrays an Italian man.
About 45 minutes into the film when a distraught Kate (Meg Ryan) is seen speaking to Charlie's mother from a street payphone in Paris, just as Kate says "I know I will triumph," the shot switches to an angle that includes the Parisian landmark "Arc de Triomphe" in the background. Triomphe is French for 'triumph'. Clearly a Lawrence Kasdan in-joke.
The slogan for U Can Fly read: "Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself".
Though also a producer and screen-writer, director Lawrence Kasdan performed neither of these duties on this picture, only directing it.
The names of the two French hotels were the Hôtel George V in Paris and the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.
Final theatrical feature film lensed by cinematographer and director of photography Owen Roizman.
In the confrontation scene on the beach umbrellas at Cannes, a topless woman (somewhat out of focus) plays in the surf in the background over Meg Ryan's right shoulder.
Playing Kate in this movie, actress Meg Ryan would later portray a movie character with the same first name later, when Ryan played Kate McKay in Kate & Leopold (2001).
Two years later Meg Ryan starred in a similar romantic movie this time her ex-fiance Addicted To Love (1997).
French actor Jean Reno portrayed a character, Jean-Paul Cardon, who had the same first name as the first part of his character's name.
Second cinema movie directed by Lawrence Kasdan where he did not act as a screenwriter on the picture. The first had been Ich liebe Dich zu Tode (1990).
Final theatrical feature film directed by Lawrence Kasdan for about four years until Dr. Mumford (1999).
Third consecutive back-to-back movie lensed by cinematographer Owen Roizman that was directed by director Lawrence Kasdan after Wyatt Earp - Das Leben einer Legende (1994) and Grand Canyon - Im Herzen der Stadt (1991). The pair had also previously collaborated on Ich liebe Dich zu Tode (1990) which had been their first collaboration.
Adam Brooks: The writer has a brief role as "Perfect Passenger" (the guy who is taking his shoes off when Kate first gets on the plane to Paris).
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