The Valet

Pierre Levasseur is a wealthy businessman whose marriage depends on keeping his wife's share of his company out of play, so when a paparazzo photographs him with his mistress, the top model Éléna Simonsen, he needs a story fast. He picks a stranger who happens to appear in the same shot, François Pignon, a modest parking valet, and tells his wife that Éléna is seeing Pignon rather than him. To make the claim hold up, Éléna moves into Pignon's small flat, while Pignon tries to explain the arrangement to Émilie, the woman he hopes to marry.

Francis Veber directed and co-wrote the film with Declan May, and it was released in 2006, arriving between Ruby & Quentin and A Pain in the Ass in a run of nine features he directed. Gad Elmaleh plays Pignon, with Alice Taglioni as Éléna, Daniel Auteuil as Levasseur, Kristin Scott Thomas as his wife Christine, Richard Berry as the lawyer Foix and Virginie Ledoyen as Émilie.

The production cost about 25 million dollars and took roughly 29 million dollars worldwide, a modest return for its budget. On IMDb the film holds 6.6 out of 10 from around 11,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from 562 votes; a critics' rating of 6.6 out of 10 across 81 reviews sits level with the IMDb figure and slightly above the TMDB one.