Albert Jeanjean (30) is a sound engineer, a job which allows him to listen in on the world, and keep himself to himself (which doesn’t stop him lavishing advice about framing to his director). Ingenuous and pathologically indecisive, he claims these qualities ‘are not mutually exclusive’, throws up when he’s emotionally overloaded and tends to pour cold water over women who are sweet to him. At the local elections, Albert volunteers to count votes: he uses this to cock a snook at his childhood friends, but also for the opportunities it offers to ogle women’s legs. Albert is not fainthearted, butsimply incapable of a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’. After an erotic encounter in the north, he pleads with a colleague to decide for him whether to take the train or not: ‘Just tell me what to do!’ Although this hesitant tightrope-artist claims his right to take his time to think things over, at some point he will also have to act, and face three strong-willed women. Albert is seductively intriguing because he’s so elusive. Albert Jeanjean, a ‘touchingly droll’ character, withstands the frenzy about him, and ends up getting away with it.Podalydès employs his regular cast of actors again, including his brother Denis, who plays Albert and who contributed to the dialogue writing. Taking the totality of the footage he shot, he is currently working on a ‘very long’ version of Dieu seul me voit: his protagonist’s tribulations are certainly worth another few episodes.
