Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (French: Jeanne et le garçon formidable) is a 1998 French musical romantic drama film directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
Jeanne (Virginie Ledoyen) is a young woman who makes a habit of having several boyfriends at the same time while she searches for the one perfect guy. She believes she has found him in Olivier (Mathieu Demy, son of Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda), to the point where she's seriously contemplating letting all her other affairs go. Unfortunately, Olivier turns out to have AIDS and lives in fear that he will die any day. Undeterred, Jeanne pursues a serious relationship with him and supports him through his illness, despite Olivier's misgivings.
Tropes in this film:
- Downer Ending: Olivier dies and Jeanne is so broken at the news that she can't even muster the strength to get to his funeral.
- Homage: The musical scenes are in the style of Jacques Demy's own musicals such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with even mundane conversations being done in song. The casting of his son Mathieu Demy is not a coincidence.
- Meet Cute: Jeanne and Olivier meet at a bumpy subway ride, with her accidentally falling on his lap.
- One True Love: Jeanne has several boyfriends at any given point in her search for "the perfect guy". She believes Olivier is him.
- Really Gets Around: Jeanne nonchalantly comments to her sister about having "only" three boyfriends at the moment, and it's shown the relationships are fully sexual. Falling in love with Olivier causes her to choose monogamy (though it ends up being in vain).
- Tragic AIDS Story: Jeanne and Olivier have a relationship even though Olivier is guaranteed to die of AIDS soon. After Olivier gets hospitalized, he pushes Jeanne away to avoid hurting her when the inevitable happens. Eventually, Olivier dies and Jeanne is left broken at losing the first guy she's ever seriously cared about.
