Laughter is something we can all indulge in. It is not a gift reserved for the favoured few. But unless our laughter is to be mere empty hilarity, without aim or purpose, we must learn how to use it effectively.

You can start by seeing EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE, a disarmingly charming droll comedy that is piquant, poignant and pleasing.

An exploration of embarrassment and self-doubt, EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE begins with golden girl environmentalist, Jeanne, enduring public humiliation when her much-heralded ‘sea-cleaning machine’ fails monumentally, her project and her material presence capsized and captured on film.

Life suddenly unravels for the lauded eco warrior. Out of a job and in debt, her own self a sustainability problem, Jeanne’s internalised self-doubt begins to spill to the surface. Jeanne’s interior voice, personified in line-drawing animations as the ‘little ghost,’ quietly criticises her every move – wreaking havoc while her exterior struggles to keep calm and carry on.

It’s a creative choice that tells the audience what was going on in the head of this woman who is losing it completely, a comic element allowing the juggling act of what she says and what she really thinks.

To recoup her losses and find some firm financial footing, Jeanne heads to Lisbon with the hopes of selling her late mother’s flat. When she runs into a former classmate, Jean at the airport Jeanne instinctively wants to run and hide. He seemingly has no filter, but his airy attitude and witty banter begins to endear himself to her, an unnerving honesty helping her come to terms with her own humiliation and therefore her humanity.

Starring Blanche Gardin as Jeanne and Laurent Lafitte as Jean, writer director Céline Devaux’ feature film was a Hit of the 2023 French Film Festival and stands as a reminder to not take ourselves, our successes or our failures too seriously.

With so many so-called comedies crass and clueless and stale, EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE comes as a whimsical breath of fresh air.