Is Gad Elmaleh (The Valet) trying to typecast himself as the bozo with a heart of gold? In Pierre Salvadori’s Priceless, he plays Jean, the very lucky bartender at a swanky hotel in Biarritz, whom gold-digger Irčne (Audrey Tatou) mistakes for a handsome young tycoon. In way over his head, Jean is soon busted and bankrupted, but as Irčne moves to Nice and onto her next sugar daddy, he reluctantly falls into the role of toyboy for an older, jealous woman who can cover his debts. The rest of the film is essentially the hijinks that ensue from his rapid indoctrination in prostituting himself, all the while pining for his teacher, who flits easily between lady and tramp. The effortless, cool jazz themes from Camille Bazbaz are a real highlight and help avoid scrutinising the film for too long, because with its luxury-product placement, dodgy morals and plot contrivances, Priceless is best enjoyed as a Riviera beach: let those evanescent pleasures wash over you and try not to notice that you’re enjoying diversions built around the empires of the Paris Hiltons of this world.

Eating competitions at the Communist Spartakiad are only one of the bizarre settings that Taxidermia – a film that will surely make selection for the 2025 Wellington Incredibly Strange Film Festival – manages to milk for maximum offensiveness. But athletic vomiting is tame compared to the rest of the shock set-pieces Hungarian director György Pálfi unleashes. I got the feeling that the story for Taxidermia was written backwards: we have a taxidermist, now what are some truly appalling things he can stuff, and why? There are macabre glimpses of philosophy to be found deep among the guts and autoerotic fireworks over three generations of a disfigured and dysfunctional family, and I hope Damien Hirst doesn’t get any funny ideas if he sees the statement on high art in the final scene. Pálfi injects real imagination, élan and black humour into his exploration of the taboos of bodily experiences, so as long as you have a strong stomach and a bit of patience, there are plenty of batty ideas in Taxidermia to chew over.—Joe Sheppard