2011 - Dir: Francoise Ozon
Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 10th February, 2012
Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 10th February, 2012
In a way, "Potiche" is a trifle: Set in 1977, it adopts a candy-box color palette that evokes the fluffy comedies of the late '60s and early '70s. It's funny, broad and never stops moving. It's made to please, and succeeds. But it's also the movie that Catherine Deneuve has been heading toward for the better part of two decades. Once the cinema's ice goddess, Deneuve has become less guarded, less cold and less certain in her screen incarnations, and "Potiche" completes that work.
The word potiche translates into English as "trophy wife," though in French the word seems to have an extra implication of complete uselessness. Deneuve plays Suzanne, the sheltered wife of umbrella factory owner (Fabrice Luchini) who is in the midst of a labour dispute with his workers. He doesn't take her seriously, and neither do her kids.
A supersized Gerard Depardieu plays a leftist politician who shares a past with Suzanne, and his scenes with Deneuve are a tender acknowledgment of the movies they made when they were young (and before he started to look like Arthur Mullard crossed with Les Dawson). Even the umbrella factory is an oblique reference to Deneuve’s earliest hit "Les parapluies de Cherbourg".
This is never going to be the greatest or most profound feminist movie ever made - but it has to be the most heart warming and colourful experiences you can (legally) enjoy on a chilly February evening.
The word potiche translates into English as "trophy wife," though in French the word seems to have an extra implication of complete uselessness. Deneuve plays Suzanne, the sheltered wife of umbrella factory owner (Fabrice Luchini) who is in the midst of a labour dispute with his workers. He doesn't take her seriously, and neither do her kids.
A supersized Gerard Depardieu plays a leftist politician who shares a past with Suzanne, and his scenes with Deneuve are a tender acknowledgment of the movies they made when they were young (and before he started to look like Arthur Mullard crossed with Les Dawson). Even the umbrella factory is an oblique reference to Deneuve’s earliest hit "Les parapluies de Cherbourg".
This is never going to be the greatest or most profound feminist movie ever made - but it has to be the most heart warming and colourful experiences you can (legally) enjoy on a chilly February evening.
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