Synopsis:

Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is the most boring employee at the condom factory, a meek accountant who seems so unnecessary that he's told he'll be fired after 20 years of loyal service. That figures. His wife divorced him two years earlie, his son despises him as a nobody. At work, his colleagues snicker about what a nerd he is.
Pignon returns to his depressing bachelor apartment, finds a kitten on the balcony, gives it a saucer of milk and hears a knock at the door. It is his new neighbor, Belone, an older man who is looking for the kitten--and sees immediately that Francois is miserable. Soon Francois pours out his story. Belone listens and comes up with a way for Francois to keep his job: He must pretend to be gay. That way, the condom company will be terrified of bad publicity if it fires him.
Belone (Michel Aumont), who is gay himself, uses his computer to fabricate photographs that seem to show Pignon being very friendly with a leather-clad gay man and mails it to co-workers at the factory. The news spreads instantly, and Pignon's office mates now interpret his inhibited behavior as just a cover-up.
At least two of Pignon's co-workers are intrigued by the revelations about his sexuality. Mlle. Bertrand (Michele Laroque), his superior, found him boring when he was straight but sexy now that he's gay and wants to seduce him. And the rugby-playing Santini(Gerard Depardieu), who picked on Pignon when he thought he was a sissy, now tries to save his own job by taking the accountant out to lunch and being nice to him--suspiciously nice, some might think.

About the movie
"The Closet" is a new French comedy that turns the tables on "La Cage Aux Folles." ( Original version of US hits "The Birdcage" ) That was about a gay man trying to appear straight; this is about a straight, conservative, timid man who is transformed in the eyes of the world when he seems to be gay.
The movie is a box office hit in France, not least because it has four top actors in unusual roles. Gerard Depardieu, the most macho of French actors, plays Santini, a homophobe who stops gay-bashing and tries to befriend Pignon. Jean Rochefort is the magisterial boss of the company. And Thierry Lhermitte is the troublemaker who inflames Depardieu's fears by telling him he'll be fired for his political incorrectness. To understand this casting in Hollywood terms, think of Auteuil, Depardieu, Rochefort and Lhermitte as Tom Hanks, Brendan Fraser, Michael Douglas and Kevin Pollak. Given the success of "The Birdcage", the Hollywood remake of "La Cage Aux Folles," we may actually be seeing casting like this before long.

Cast & Character

Pignon ~ Daniel Auteuil [The Eighth Day], [The Girl on the Bridge]
Santini ~ Gerard Depardieu [Cyrano de Bergerac]
Belone ~ Michel Aumont
Bertrand ~ Michele Laroque

Director
Francis Veber

Cinema
AMC/ Broadway Cinematheque / UA Pacific Place