La maison du chat qui pelote (24 Mar. 2009)

The scene takes place in Paris during the First French Empire. "La Maison du chat qui pelote" is a haberdashery managed with due diligence by Monsieur Guillaume, helped by his faithful ... See full summary »

Director:

Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe

Writers:

Anne Andrei (scenario, adaptation and dialogue), Honoré de Balzac (short story)

Stars:

Mélanie Bernier, Raphaël Personnaz, Régis Laspalès

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Mélanie Bernier	...	Augustine Guillaume
Raphaël Personnaz	...	Théodore de Sommervieux
Régis Laspalès	...	M. Guillaume
Marie Vincent	...	Mme Guillaume
Evelyne Bouix	...	Mme Roguin
Françoise Gillard	...	Virginie Guillaume (as Françoise Gilard sociétaire à la Comédie-Française)
Marc Bodnar	...	Joseph Lebas
Arielle Dombasle	...	La duchesse de Carigliano
Alexandre Zloto	...	Girodet
Laurence Cordier	...	La première élégante
Laurence Porteil	...	La seconde élégante
Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe	...	Le mendiant
Stéphanie Gesnel	...	Le modèle nu

Storyline

The scene takes place in Paris during the First French Empire. "La Maison du chat qui pelote" is a haberdashery managed with due diligence by Monsieur Guillaume, helped by his faithful assistant Joseph Lebas. Monsieur Guillaume and his wife have two marriageable daughters, Virginie, the elder, a sweet and sensible woman, and Augustine, who has more charms than her. Unsurprisingly Virginie has difficulty finding a suitor. As for Augustine, she has two lovers, Joseph on the one hand and Théodore de Sommervieux, a young aristocrat and artist, on the other. Monsieur Guillaume refuses to give Augustine to Joseph as he wants him to marry Virginie, which the assistant clerk reluctantly accepts. On the other hand, Guillaume ends up giving his blessing to Théodore and Augustine as. A love match vs. a forced marriage: Augustine seems bound for happiness and Virginie for a dreary life. But destiny has surprises in store.

Details

Release Date:

24 March 2009 (France)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), France 2 (FR2), J.M. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

58 min

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Quatuor pour piano et cordes N°1
Composé en 1797 par Ludwig van Beethoven
Publié en 1798

User Reviews

Happiness is a ting called communion of mind with mind

"La maison du chat qui pelote" is an episode of the worthwhile series "Au siècle de Maupassant" which, in the wake of "Chez Maupassant", offers lively filmed adaptations of great French writers. Both "Chez Maupassant" and "Au siècle de Maupassant" combine more than one quality : they adapt short stories, novellas or brief novels, which allows the screenwriters not to slash the original work too much ; instead of being staid and sanctimonious like too many adaptations of classics, the stories look as fresh as if they unfurled today ; the directors chosen by the producers are top notch professionals (Chabrol, Verhaeghe, Heynemann, Schatzky...) and, even better, the selected actors (Eddy Mitchell, Marie-Anne Chazel, Francis Perrin, Philippe Torreton...) are often cast against type - to astonishing and fruitful results. The source of "La maison du chat qui pelote" is a little known short novel written in 1829 (and reworked in 1842) by a master of French literature, Honoré de Balzac, well adapted by Aline Andrei and filmed by the prolific and talented Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe. In this particular case, the director manages to capture the flavor of the French First Empire, without pomp or ostentation (this is the story of ordinary people, not of Napoleon and his dignitaries) but quite accurately. He has gathered an interesting cast including a surprising Régis Laspalès (of the comic duet Chevallier et Laspalès) who, far from Chevallier's usual dumb sidekick, performs the role of the father quite convincingly. All those qualities do justice to the theme examined by Balzac in his book: is love marriage necessarily better than marriage of convenience? Or in other words, does passion guarantee happiness? The issue is exemplified here by the fate reserved for the two daughters of a haberdasher, Augustine and Virginie Guillaume, who marry, the former for love and the other for reason. Augustine has fallen for a young aristocrat who is smitten with her while Virginie lets herself married to Joseph, her father's clerk assistant, who himself would have preferred Augustine. From such a premise, it looks as if the die is cast. And yet, nothing happens as expected. As a matter of fact, while Joseph and Virginie discover they share the same values (they both love managing the shop they have inherited) Augustine finds out after a dream year that Théodore, a learned nobleman and painter, is growing weary with her and her lack of culture. Thus while Joseph and Virginie have children and enjoy every minute of their lives, Augustine goes through the insufferable pangs of rejection. The moral of Balzac's story (don't let beauty be the only criterion for marriage ; try and find a partner who shares common tastes, ideas and/or knowledge with you) is still more than valid today. For proof we need only cite the high number of divorces in current society. Such durable relevance accordingly gives the status of classic to both Balzac's book and Verhaeghe's TV adaptation in that both works deal at the same time with the world of yesterday, of today and of tomorrow. Therefore any adult or older teenager can take an interest in "La maison du chat qui pelote", not only literature lovers To get back to the film in particular, let us say in addition that it can boast a well-chosen musical accompaniment, composed of extracts from works by Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. Mention should also be made of Mélanie Bernier's excellent performance. As Augustine, she manages to appear genuinely naive and charming in the first half only to wane little by little in the second part. Not every actress would have had the talent to turn from young innocent to tragic figure the way she does. Recommended for those who love literature, moral tales and good quality adaptations.