A Gallic crime novelist investigates the death of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike in “Nobody Else but You,” a subversive and strange little film noir that’s so strongly dominated by white hues — whether peroxided or not — that it could be dubbed a film blanc. Second feature from scribe-helmer Gerald Hustache-Mathieu (“Avril”) again combines wildly disparate elements, including a voiceover from beyond the grave, an oddly patterned detective story and an offbeat sense of humor. This Gallic twist on a Coen brothers-style film did OK biz locally in limited release and is a natural for fests.
Bestselling novelist David Rousseau (Jean-Paul Rouve) has writer’s block when he arrives in snow-covered Mouthe, population 961, in the French Alps. In town for a will reading (he inherits a stuffed pet), he becomes drawn in to the suicide of a local cheese-logo starlet and unnatural blonde (Sophie Quinton, in voiceover and flashbacks). Since things don’t add up, “James Ellroy,” as the local police call him, does a little sleuthing of his own. Audacious plot twists work because the thesps play everything 100% straight. Lensing and score add to the American genre-film vibe.
