On a Friday morning at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif., writers sit at a round table awaiting the talent’s arrival. Several of the journalists are middle-aged women, carrying on about the disgusting costumes from another movie they reviewed earlier in the week. Soon, a French-American translator arrives. He takes a seat at the table and makes small talk about his foray into his particular line of work. Moments later, a publicist arrives. She steps to the side and makes her introductions. “Ladies and gentleman,” she says, “I’d like to introduce you to director Pascal Chaumeil, Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis.” The writers position their digital recorders on the table in close proximity to the talent, and so the games began.

The French trio is promoting Heartbreaker, a clever and stylish take on the classic romantic comedy. Duris plays Alex Lippi. His job is to seduce and destroy ... relationships. With his sister and brother-in-law in tow, Alex travels all over the world – at the request of friends and family members of his subjects – and charms women out of their rotten relationships with other men. The trio often utilizes James Bond-type stealth and equipment to achieve their goals. Costumes are a must. Wiretaps are a given. Results are a definite. Alex is on a 10-year streak of success. However, despite his track record, the company’s financial portfolio is bleak. Luckily, they’ve been hired to do a job that just might change that.

Alex is hired to break up a stunning young heiress named Juliette (Paradis) and her British playboy fiancé. The mysterious heartbreaker assumes the role of her bodyguard. He discovers Juliette’s likes and dislikes, such as old George Michael songs and the 1980s classic Dirty Dancing. He even teaches himself some of the film’s choreography – you know, just in case. Alex soon makes his way into Juliette’s arms. Little does he know that she’s about to make her way into his heart and stay there.

To see Duris and Paradis together onscreen is to witness cinematic magic. The actors light up the screen with great comedic chemistry and sex appeal. They are most notable in their big dance sequence that is a recreation of Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s romantic turn in Dirty Dancing. Both are perfect for one another and just may give historic onscreen duos serious run for the money.

Heartbreaker was shot on the luxurious streets of Monaco. From pristine waters to five-star hotels, each location sets the stage for romance to occur and surprisingly, for humor to erupt. Aside from its humorous, contemporary dialogue, Heartbreaker is filled to the brim with physical comedy. In what is perhaps one of the funniest and most physically challenging scenes in the film, Duris’ Alex is stabbed in the thigh by a drunken socialite.

“The fork in the leg scene had to be shot several times,” notes Chaumeil.

But the director confesses that he and his actors were laughing through nearly every take and in between many of the scenes. Chaumeil is pleased with the end result, noting that he is quite aware of the unique charm his film possesses.

“Some people have said that this is like a glass of champagne,” he says.

For Duris, the chance to play many different characters as a romantic master of disguise was a wonderful challenge. He had a few favorite characterizations within the film that really stood out.

“The guy who works in the Japanese restaurant – that guy was funny,” says Duris. “And also the gospel singer because the music was so good.”

He also loved Chaumeil’s hands-on directorial style.

“[Pascal] wanted to push the romantic aspect of the film to the maximum by focusing as much as possible on the emotion of the meeting between my character and Vanessa’s,” says Duris.

Paradis found the dancing to be a good way to break the ice and really let down her guard with Duris for the shoot.

“There was a lot of foot-stamping – crushing,” she says.

“It was a nice way to meet you,” jokes Duris.

Paradis agrees: “Yeah, it was a nice way to get to meet you.”