The Players (French: Les Infidèles, lit. 'The Unfaithful Ones') is a 2012 French sex comedy anthology film starring Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche, with each of them also directing and writing a segment.
Contents
Plot
Series of vignettes about the theme of male infidelity and its adulterous variants.
Cast
Jean Dujardin as Fred / Olivier / François / Laurent / James
Gilles Lellouche as Greg / Nicolas / Bernard / Antoine / Eric
Lionel Abelanski as the director
Guillaume Canet as Thibault
Charles Gérard as Richard
Sandrine Kiberlain as Marie-Christine
Dolly Golden as the mistress
Éric de Montalier as the emergency doctor
Katia Lewkowicz as Maxime's mother
Alexandra Lamy as Lisa
Éric Massot as the waiter
Mathilda May as Ariane
Géraldine Nakache as Stéphanie
Isabelle Nanty as Christine
Maëva Pasquali as Nathalie
Manu Payet as Simon
Clara Ponsot as Inès
Hélène Seuzaret as Isabelle, Éric's wife
Anthony Sonigo as Benjamin
Anne Suarez as Julie
Bastien Bouillon as Valentin
Controversy
The promotional posters for the film, on which Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche are seen in suggestive positions (like gripping a pair of naked female legs), attracted accusations of sexism. The French professional authority of regulation for advertising received four official complaints accusing the posters of sexism. Following this controversy, the posters were taken down, and the distributor apologized.
Dujardin refers to I mostri by Dino Risi.
The original cut of the film included a scene where a man talks to a woman while a plane crashes into the World Trade Center. Reportedly, this scene has been censored to have better chances to get an Academy Award for Dujardin (who went on to win the Best Actor award for his leading role in The Artist).
Remake
An Italian remake of the same name was released in 2020.