Dir.: Laurent Bénégui

Laurent Bénégui abandoned a medical career for an artistic one. He has written a number of radio plays and film scripts and published three novels. He directed his first film, UN TYPE BIEN (1990), without any formal training and followed it with a short, "Mireille et Barnabé aimeraient bien en avoir un" (1993), and AU PETIT MARGUERY (1995), adapted from his own, auto-biographical novel.

MAUVAIS GENRE (CA)
1996 / 35 mm / Couleur / 86 min.
France

Dir.: Laurent Bénégui; Script: Laurent Bénégui, Jean-Luc Gaget; Phot.: Pascale Gennesseaux; Ed.: Jean-Luc Gaget; Mus.: Benjamin Raffaeli, Laurent Coq; Cast: Jacques Gamblin, Elina Löwensohn, Monica Bellucci, Christiane Cohendy, Michel Aumont, Agnès Obadia, Thiam, Jean-François Perrier, Laurent Olmedo, Evelyne Didi; Prod.: Charles Gassot, Telema, 44, rue Chaptal, 92300 Levallois (France), tél.: 41 49 60 00, fax: 41 49 60 49; Sales: Le Studio Canal+, 17, rue Dumont d'Urville, 75116 Paris (France), tél.: 44 43 98 00, fax: 47 20 29 67 ;Dist.: Alliance.

Martial is a novelist but can't tell the difference between his stories and his own life. He is egotistical, weak and dishonest. His subjects are mostly autobiographical. His first novel, "The Girl From Behind", is inspired by Lucie, the woman with whom he lives. Lucie is a strong character, anchored in reality. She and Martial love each other but have hard time conveying it. Their love is sharp and brittle, stretched to its limits like a tightrope. They are always on the verge of falling off. In fact things do lose their balance when Martial meets Camille, a gorgeous young woman who makes hats. He spies her buying a copy of his book and follows her into the Métro, excited by the idea that she's reading what he wrote. Then there's Michèle, a prostitute by vocation and a literary critic in her spare time. Before he knows it, Martial is prowling the alleyways of Pigalle. Martial falls for Camille but Camille prefers women and she's fallen for the heroine of Martial's book. That's Lucie. As for Lucie, she's too sharp not to have noticed. Who's to say that all's well that end's well?