Une femme de ménage (2002)

Director:

Claude Berri

Writers:

Claude Berri (writer)
Christian Oster (book)

Release Date:

13 November 2002 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

After his wife leaves him for another man, Jacques hires a housekeeper, Laura, to keep his Paris apartment in order...

Plot Keywords:

Housekeeper | Beach | Chicken | Paris France | Nudity

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Pierre Bacri	...	Jacques
Émilie Dequenne	...	Laura
Brigitte Catillon	...	Claire
Jacques Frantz	...	Ralph
Axelle Abbadie	...	Helene
Catherine Breillat	...	Constance
Apollinaire Louis-Philippe Dogue	...	Ernest, le barman
Amalric Gérard	...	Julien
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nathalie Boutefeu	...	Jeune fille au concert
Laurence Colussi	...	Femme à la terrasse
Djura	...	Chanteuse
Daniel Humair	...	Musicien
Xavier Maly	...	Assistant de Jacques
Pierre Michelot	...	Musicien
Abel Nahmias	...	Le voisin
René Urtreger	...	Musicien

Also Known As:

A Housekeeper (International: English title)
The Housekeeper (USA) (review title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality/nudity and brief language.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R

Company:

Canal+

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end of the film, goes for a swim. When she returns to the beach, she is wearing a completely different bathing suit.

Only the French can make movies like this

I almost gave up on this one forty minutes in. Don't you do that. The ending is superb.

Premise: working class girl gets dumped by her boyfriend and seeks work by housekeeping.

Well, that can lead to something better if you keep house for the right person.

Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who recently got walked out on by his wife, and who, not so incidentally looks sixty--well, fifty-five--(actually he was barely fifty when this was made, but you get the point) gets his ad for a housekeeper answered by Laura (Emilie Dequenne) who is twentysomething--a young twentysomething.

I guess there is not much else to say, and to be honest I decided I would force myself to watch the inevitable. But the director is Claude Berri who directed two of the best movies I ever saw: Manon of the Spring (1986) and Jean De Florette (1986).

And so I stayed with it. At about the fifty minute mark the movie started to get interesting. I could feel that old guy/young girl love affair was going to take an unexpected fork in the road. (As Yogi said, if you come to a fork in the road, take it. The players have no choice.) Obviously, old guy/young girl can end only one way: young girl leaves old guy for young guy. This is biology. It will be painful.

Claude Berri knows all this, and probably a lot better than I do. And so guess what? Well, I won't tell. But you will find that the last thirty-some minutes of this sexy romantic comedy delightful, and especially the very, very clever and most satisfying ending.

Just prior to that Laura asks Jacques for his blessing. He won't give it, but she is right: he should. And then when we get the final "life is so...lifelike" grimace on Jacques's face, we can only smile.

Emilie Dequenne is delightful as the strangely wise and very natural Laura, and Jean-Pierre Bacri is winning as the old guy who knows better, but on reflection should thank his lucky stars.