THE TASTE OF OTHERS ()

Opposites attract – and vive la difference! In French with English subtitles. Running time: 112 minutes. Not rated (adult themes). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Angelika.

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‘THE Taste of Others” is a fresh, funny comedy directed by Agnes Jaoui, who’s sort of France’s contemporary answer to Betty Comden.

Like Comden and Adolph Green, Jaoui and her husband, Jean-Pierre Bacri, are actors who have written several plays and movies, including this one.

Bacri has the bigger role, as Castella, a successful businessman who’s dragged to the theater by his wife (Christiane Millet), a self-absorbed, animal- and chintz-adoring interior decorator with atrocious taste.

Much to his astonishment, Castella not only stays awake during a performance of Racine’s “Berenice,” he develops a roaring crush on the lead actress, Clara (Anne Alvaro) – and keeps going back to see the play every night.

When an assistant arranges for an English tutor for an important business meeting with a group of Arabs, Castella is delighted when his teacher turns out to be a moonlighting Clara.

Clara initially rebuffs the smitten Castella in the movie’s best scene, but something in this gruff philistine appeals to the 40-year-old spinster – even if her arty friends mock him behind his back.

Things only seem to get worse when he tries to impress Clara by commissioning a mural for his factory and shaving off his mustache.

As a counterpoint to the Clara-Castella middle-age love story, Castella’s handsome bodyguard (Gerard Lanvin) falls for the feisty barmaid (Jaoui herself) where Clara and her pals hang out.

Their relationship is complicated by the barmaid’s sideline – dealing dope.

The action takes place not in Paris but in the provincial city of Rouen, where Jaoui and Bacri construct a comedy of manners that’s as generous of spirit as it is laugh-provoking.

“The Taste of Others” is a tad slow by American standards, but so extremely well-acted and emotionally truthful, it’s right up there with “In the Mood for Love” as prime romantic fare for the Valentine’s Day weekend.