It’s not necessarily a losing battle, but it’s a difficult one to win. Casting yourself as a kooky photographer alongside Adam Goldberg as your neurotic hypochondriac boyfriend was always going to raise an ‘Annie Hall!’ war-cry from advancing critics.

Despite this, Julie Delpy’s comedy-drama Two Days in Paris is most definitely its own film, self-confessed Woody Allen fan though she may be.

It’s very much a Delpy project — she wrote, directed and stars in the piece — but by this same token it has its own agenda.

The action sees Marion (Delpy) bring her American boyfriend Jack (Glodberg) home to Paris during their tour of Europe. Parents are met and past relationships exposed, to the increasing dismay of the boyfriend in question.

The film exposes notions bound up in Delpy’s own dual nationality, and bravely explores the issue of the Parisian racism that lurks behind the romance of the city’s glinting façade. It does all this, of course, in her native country’s election year. Significantly though, the film is a funny one; cajoling laughs from the audience with an easy, impromptu style of directing from Delpy and acting from all concerned.

Much of the movie’s humour is born from its bilingualism, with subtitles working to good comic effect throughout. This is especially true in the scenes where Goldberg is confronted with Delpy’s real life parents in the role of his potential in-laws. Both Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet are actors of old, and their cultured turns add something special to the whole affair.

The resultant blend this infusion of politics with personal comedies and tragedies serves up is one that should both travel and age well.

Two word verdict: French bliss

Two Days In Paris
On general release from 31 August