Last night's New York premiere of Heartbreaker was packed to the gills with people excited to see the French romantic comedy that's been making waves overseas. The film stars Romain Duris (In Paris, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) as a Alex, who, along with his sister Mélanie (Julie Ferrier) and her husband Marc (François Damiens), is hired by concerned friends and family members to break up unhappy couples—specifically, ones where the women are either unhappy or unhappy who won't admit it or don't realize it yet. After meticulous research, they come up with elaborate plans to woo the woman to help her realize she deservers better than the shmuck she's with.

Their newest assignment is a tough nut to crack: the brilliant, gorgeous, and successful Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) is madly in love with a British man who is practically Prince Charming. When Alex and his team are hired by Juliette's dad to break up this seemingly perfect couple, they're up against a ticking clock; the couple are about to get happily married, and Alex owes a bad man a lot of money. Before the screening, director Pascal Chaumeil told the crowd, "I was not sure [about making] this movie. If you would have told me a year ago I would be on a stage in New York, I would have told you, 'Don't make fun of me.'" Well, Heartbreaker must have the first-time feature director in a constant state of surprise, because it's winning over audiences in New York and Los Angeles and has already been picked up by IFC for distribution.

After the screening, Chaumeil, screenwriter Jeremy Doner, and Ferrier answered questions from the audience about the movie. Ferrier, who also stars in Micmacs as a contortionist, said that the most interesting part of filming was the nine-hour drive through Morocco with the cast. "We were a team on this film," said Julie through a translator. "We went to Morocco, and we had to be in a car for nine hours, which was quite a surprise. Throughout the shoot, it was a wonderful share of love and complicity between [us] immediately, until the end." Chaumeil added, "I think they had a lot of beer during these nine hours! I was in another car with the [director of photography] and we met halfway, and then I saw the three of them… and the whole car was full of empty beer cans. That's how you make a team, you know?" The audience laughed. Julie responded in mock offense, "That's the Belgian guy, my husband in the film, François Damiens! Not me! I'm a working girl!"

Find out when and where you can catch Heartbreaker and Micmacs at the Tribeca Film Festival!