Reviews & Ratings for
May Fools More at IMDbPro »Milou en mai (original title)

29 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
A feast of emotions ..., 17 April 2000

Author: joNNi from Harrogate, England

Milou en Mai finds the aging Louis Malle at his most wickedly wistful, directing mischievous set pieces and ultimately expressing nervous laughter at his own mortality. Made more in the traditions of British farce than the traditional French 'sophistication', in being set to the background of the 60's union unrest and student riots, the film keeps a subtle check on the ridiculous. Examining death, family relationships, marital relationships, extra-marital relationships and the different ways people perceive their lot in life, Milou en Mai has something for everyone: farcical comedy, beautiful cinematography, perceptive commentary, delightful anecdotes (I'm thinking of the opening bee-keeper scene and crab-catching in the river) and fantastic 'Hot Club de France' bowing and strumming. This film is one of my all time favourites - gentle, intelligent, sensitive fun - highly recommended.

21 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
May Wine, 24 May 2005

Author: writers_reign

Malle made only two films after this one, Damage, and Vanya On 42nd Street and it's tempting to view Milou en Mai as a rehearsal for Vanya though in the end the differences outweigh the similarities. It IS set on a country estate that is running to seed and there IS a 'Vanya' figure in Milou himself (Michel Piccoli) who more or less tends the estate in the absence of his siblings - one deceased, one pursuing his own career. There IS a family gathering with all that that implies, bickering, truth-telling, laughter, tears, accusations, recriminations etc. Perhaps above all it is a MOOD piece which does put it in the same universe as Chekhov but it is ultimately too easy to read it in this way. It was a masterstroke to place it at the time of the student riots in Paris, May, 1968 and this strengthens the links with Chekhov who, of course, wrote his own masterpieces at a time when Russia was undergoing changes unacknowledged by his gentlefolk with their heads in the metaphorical sand of dachas serenely remote from the turbulence. This is a film of great lyricism and melancholia with a gentle Jazz music score by Stephane Grappelly and the action, such as it is, is kick-started by the death of Milou's mother which necessitates summoning the family for the funeral. Again like Chekhov what we have here is an ensemble piece rather than Leading Man, Leading Lady, Juvenile, Ingenue, etc and the acting is uniformly excellent from Miou-Miou as Milou's daughter, Camille, to Francois Berleand as the family lawyer who drives a red Alfa Romeo and still carries a torch for Camille, to Valerie Lemercier in the small but telling role of Madame Boutelleau. The events in far-off Paris punctuate but are not allowed to dominate and barely to influence the action leaving the family - and non-family - to quarrel, couple, fail-to-couple and relate the occasional home truth. In short a lovely Autumnal movie.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Magical Malle, 24 November 2010

Author: Tim Kidner (tim@kidnerpix.com) from Salisbury, United Kingdom

I've long felt that Louis Malle was my favourite French director. Pushing out the cinematic envelope with his honest perceptions about real people, but with a sort of steady verve. They can be challenging, always absorbing but none like Milou in May -

- which is one of wonderfully loose 'no lectures today' sort of light comedies about the country-set all getting hot and bothered about sorting out funeral arrangements. The fact is that there's a national strike which causes difficulties for the various interested parties in getting there and that Paris is literally burning with the '68 student riots. But those same facts are wonderfully incidental, revealing maybe how different the upper middle class country retreats are away from poor, clashing students in the big City. Physically, socially and economically.

A playful Stefan Grapelli score delights, with a lush, so lush (it IS May) cinematography which added the cream on top of the cake, with added witty dialogue, and almost fantastical characters. They might be a little caricatured, but with an oh! so, charismatic lead. We all dreamed of uncles like that when we were ten years old! As they hang about waiting for the rest to turn up, the lazy, hazy May afternoon strolls on, with a wisp of sex and drug taking, it's an intoxicating blend of slight naughtiness to spice up a usually (for most people) unpleasant but necessary gathering.

This is Kodachrome Malle, rather than his monochrome.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The May 68' as seen by Louis Malle, 18 March 2010

Author: Luis Guillermo Cardona from Colombia

Louis Malle was one of the most notable members of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) french movement that was an alternative to film reconstructions historical and literary adaptations commonly "infidels" as they used to do filmmakers Delannoy, Autant-Lara and some others, because, unlike these, the New Wave advocated an approach to the problem of the individual to privacy, their personal experiences.

But like the rest of their comrades (with the exception of Truffaut), Louis Malle also realized that this new path, it could anchor a bourgeois and individualistic conception of life and needed to be linked to analysis of social problems, seeking more openness and greater narrative ideological commitment. So did "Lacombe Lucien", an energetic recreation of the effects left by fascism. And, among others, "Alamo Bay", on the reaction of the Vietnamese Americans living there, after the failure of the war.

Until that arrives "MILOU EN MAI", a metaphor for the state and the system, full of irony and black humor of the finest. Milou's mother, Mrs. Vieuzac, is representing the state: the owner of everything. Their children, grandchildren and sons-in-law, are the bourgeoisie, owners of power in the state. Claire, the maid, is the proletariat, the heir to only a quarter of the estate of Mrs. Vieuzac. The main prototypes come to life: the landowner, the reactionary intellectual, trader, bourgeois ladies...

With a delicious dialogue through participation in the old script by Luis Bunuel collaborator Jean Claude Carriere ("Now women complicated everything. Before they knew it was not an orgasm and it was easier"), a delightful musical score with the great jazz style of Stephane Grappelli, and beaten with that herd, Louis Malle reconstructs the warm and vibrant time of May 68', in which there was a social class who knew everything, understood everything and was consistent with everything... until that any solace to meddle in its liabilities.

In a wonderful characterization, Michel Piccoli represents Milou, the provincial intellectual who suddenly is surrounded by its unique family at the announcement of the death of his mother. When that nice breed, feel that the facts are about to touch them directly, they decide to leave the field (are excluded). What follows is better that you see it, you'll find people have probably already seen in your neighborhood or on your street and you'll realize, perhaps, that many things are not as they seem.

"MILOU EN MAI", is a piece of film hard to forget.

Family reunion, 18 October 2011

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As the story begins, an elderly woman is seen in her kitchen. Suddenly, something strikes her and she dies in front of our eyes. Milou, her oldest son, living in the estate, tries to notify the family that are scattered all over France. It is a difficult time for the country. May of 1969 marked a serious time for France as hordes of left wing individuals took to the streets in protest against one of the most beloved figures, General Charles DeGaulle.

As the family pours in, the situation begins to turn ugly. Even in this peaceful corner in rural France, people are seen in the country lanes singing The International and carrying communist flags. The first to arrive is Camille, Milou's daughter. Married to a doctor, and with three children, her mind is on whatever can be sold to be divided among the heirs. Her love toward the dead grandmother is clearly not so strong.

The other sibling, Georges, comes in with his English wife, Lily, a sensual woman, much younger than her husband. Claire, a niece by way of Georges and Milou, arrives with a female companion, showing obvious signs of being in a lesbian relationship. Claire's parents died in an automobile accident, leaving her to claim a third of whatever is made out of what the family decide to sell.

Everyone is surprised when Daniel, the notary, comes to read the dead lady's will. Adele, the loyal servant, has been made a lawful heir, so the estate must be divided by four. Calculating Camille has taken care of stealing an emerald ring from her grandmother's jewelry chest without telling anyone. Claire is the only one that questions her cousin. Much bickering goes on as nothing is found to have great value, but the land and its vineyards might bring a decent prize, but Milou, having lived in the place all his life does not want to part with it.

To complicate the situation, there is a problem with the burial of the dead lady. The grave diggers at the local cemetery are on strike, so the woman continues to be laid out at the house without no clear solution in mind. That problem does not interfere with some merrymaking from the family as they get giddy with drink. The arrival of a truck driver who could not continue his journey because of the barricades, and some scared neighbors, make the group abandon the house and go into the adjacent woods where all kinds of mishaps befall them until the political situation gets clear and everyone can go back to their lives, but leaving Milou alone in the house with his memories of happier times, and abandoned by the clan.

"May Fools" was one of Louis Malle's best films, yet it is seldom seen nowadays. With a screenplay by Jean Claude Carriere and the director, the film evokes "Uncle Vanya", a theme which Mr. Malle explored in his wonderful "Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street" on his last work for the screen. Against the turmoil in France during that fateful May, the creators work to create an atmosphere about a family in crisis, juxtaposing the action against the political situation reigning at the time. The idea of upcoming changes in France caused panic among the bourgeois family members, as it presented a menace to their way of life, as they knew it. The younger relatives took a different view, in contrast with what was expected of them.

The great Michel Piccoli made a wonderful patriarch figure in his take of Milou. His work in the film was among the best things he was called to play. Milou was powerless in the machinations that were all around him. Miou Miou's Camille shows a callous woman who is only interested in her own welfare, not caring for the rest of the family. Dominique Blanc is excellent as Claire. The supporting cast impresses, especially Harriet Walker, Francois Berleand, Michael Duchaussoy, Bruno Carette, Martine Gautier and Paulette Dubost, who is the dead Mrs. Vieuzac throughout the film.

Lovingly photographed by Renato Berta and with a jazzy musical score by Stephane Grappelli, "May Fools" is worth a look by serious fans of the Louis Malle.

the foolish charm of the Bourgeoisie, 5 December 2010

Author: Michael Neumann from United States

It's easy to understand why the late Louis Malle was such a respected filmmaker after seeing this comedy of manners, inspired (again) by the director's own childhood memories. The film begins when a grandmother's death in the spring of 1968 reunites three generations of family at a country estate in southern France. But their mingled grief and affection is soon overshadowed by news of the student riots in faraway Paris, and their already fragile bourgeois equilibrium is unbalanced by the distant echoes of uninhibited anarchy. The parallels between the family crisis and the world at large are obvious, but rarely has a corpse lying in state been surrounded by so much activity: private longings, public declarations, old resentments and new romances are all given sudden priority over preparations for the old woman's burial. Consistently graceful, often surprising, the film is an affectionate valentine from Malle to the extended family of his youth, and a gift to discriminating movie audiences during a long, dry summer.

I love this movie!, 22 June 2009

Author: marjoriem

I wonder why it is not better known? You would think it would be, it is a beautiful movie, maybe not among Malle's very best, but certainly very good. There's a bittersweet feeling and it is also quite funny, as when the sisters are fighting over which one the mother wanted to leave her jewelry to.

Michel Piccoli is one of my favorite actors, and all the other parts are well done too.

Plus, the setting and photography are so beautiful. Somewhere in the Gers I think. When Milou is walking through the vines with his elderly foreman, I drool.

Just the sort of small, beautiful, mellow, not too elaborate country house and vineyard I want for myself when I win the Loterie Nationale!

0 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A few summer days, 24 December 2009

Author: Bob Taylor (bob998@sympatico.ca) from Canada

Erm... I feel a little embarrassed; I can't join in the praise for this film, which I found too long and too unfocused. Louis Malle seems to have thought that just following Michel Piccoli around the estate as he tends to the bees and catches crabs, among other duties, while Stéphane Grappelli plays his winsome harmonica was enough to keep us engrossed. The real story is what was going on in Paris and other large cities in May 1968 (it was quite dramatic, as I recall from my safe haven in North America).

The story is flimsy: Milou and his brother Georges along with Milou's daughter Camille and Georges's children Claire and Pierre-Alain gather to attend the funeral of Mme. Vieuzac and distribute the family goods. Claire and Camille have a lively argument about the heritage, which disturbs Milou. His life has been so tranquil up to now...

The actors are let loose to give us a succession of star moments. Piccoli has his scene with the crabs, Miou-Miou her dalliance with the lawyer (superb François Berléand), Bruno Carette shows up midway as the lusty truck driver, Paulette Dubost is included as a tribute to the generation of Renoir and Carné. Finally Dominique Blanc as Georges's lesbian daughter has the best moments: she plays a Debussy piece ferociously as she watches her girlfriend flirting with Pierre-Alain. You can practically see the smoke pouring out of the piano. She also tantalizes the trucker--and us--with her bare breasts.

I don't know which director did the best account of the events of 68; possibly Wexler with his Medium Cool. Malle has not carried us back to those frenzied days, but has given us a series of vignettes as a way to show off the talents of his cast.

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