The Women on the 6th Floor (2010) Les femmes du 6ème étage (original title)

Director:

Philippe Le Guay

Writers:

Philippe Le Guay
Jérôme Tonnerre

Release Date:

7 October 2011 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Help is on the way.

Plot:

In 1960s Paris, a conservative couple's lives are turned upside down by two Spanish maids.

Plot Keywords:

1960s | Caretaker | Plumber | Toilet | Spain

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Fabrice Luchini	...	Jean-Louis Joubert
Sandrine Kiberlain	...	Suzanne Joubert
Natalia Verbeke	...	María Gonzalez
Carmen Maura	...	Concepción Ramirez
Lola Dueñas	...	Carmen
Berta Ojea	...	Dolores Carbalan
Nuria Solé	...	Teresa
Concha Galán	...	Pilar
Marie-Armelle Deguy	...	Colette de Bergeret
Muriel Solvay	...	Nicole de Grandcourt
Audrey Fleurot	...	Bettina de Brossolette
Annie Mercier	...	Mme Triboulet
Michèle Gleizer	...	Germaine Bronech - la vieille bonne bretonne
Camille Gigot	...	Bertrand Joubert
Jean-Charles Deval	...	Olivier Joubert
Philippe Duquesne	...	Gérard, l'employé du traiteur
Christine Vézinet	...	Valentine
Jeupeu	...	Boulard - le plombier
Vincent Nemeth	...	Monsieur Armand
Philippe du Janerand	...	Piquer
Patrick Bonnel	...	Golmard
Laurent Claret	...	Blamond
Thierry Nenez	...	Le poissonnier
José Etchelus	...	Le prêtre
Jean-Claude Jay	...	Pelletier
Joan Massotkleiner	...	Fernando
Ivan Martin Salan	...	Miguel
Olivia Algazi	...	Une Espagnole
Alicia Robledo Fiestas	...	Une Espagnole
Patricia Morejon	...	Une Espagnole
Raquel Teliet	...	Une Espagnole
Charlotte Burnett	...	Une Espagnole (as Anne-Charlotte Burnett)
Maria De Goyeneche	...	Une Espagnole
Sophie Nicollas	...	Une Espagnole
Sophie Piccioto	...	Une Espagnole (as Sophie Picciotto)
Victoria Sáez	...	Une Espagnole (as Victoria Saez)
Miriam Velazquez Tris	...	Une Espagnole
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lauriane Escaffre	...	La conférencière

Directed by
Philippe Le Guay

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Philippe Le Guay
Jérôme Tonnerre

Produced by
Etienne Comar	....	producer
Philippe Rousselet	....	producer

Original Music by
Jorge Arriagada

Cinematography by
Jean-Claude Larrieu

Film Editing by
Monica Coleman

Casting by
Tatiana Vialle

Production Design by
Pierre-François Limbosch

Set Decoration by
Sabine Delouvrier
Laura Musso

Costume Design by
Christian Gasc

Makeup Department
Michèle Constantinides	....	key makeup artist
Marthe Faucouit	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jean-Jacques Albert	....	production manager
Jacquot Clotilde	....	assistant unit manager
Frederic Jupin	....	post-production supervisor: Eclair Numérique
David Paté	....	additional assistant unit manager
Antoine Théron	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gabrielle Hanne	....	third assistant director
Joseph Rapp	....	assistant director
Dylan Talleux	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Aude-Line Duliere	....	second assistant art director
Geraldine Laferte	....	assistant set decorator
Jessica Lamarque	....	assistant decorator
Cédric Maserati	....	props
Thomas Morange	....	scenic painter
Christophe Offret	....	property master
Edouard Pallardy	....	head painter
Julie Ridremont	....	painter
Olivier Wojcik	....	painter

Sound Department
Emmanuel Croset	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jacques Descomps	....	sound assistant: auditorium
Vincent Guillon	....	supervising sound editor
Grégory Lacroix	....	assistant sound
Cyrille Lauwerier	....	adr mixer
Michel Monier	....	dolby consultant
Laurent Poirier	....	sound
Hubert Teissedre	....	foley recording engineer
Malo Thouément	....	sound assistant

Special Effects by
Piotr Styczen	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Olivier Blanchet	....	visual effects artist
Jean-Antoine Lacolle	....	digital compositor
Arnaud Ortmann	....	digital artist
François Poupon	....	visual effects artist
Amélie Rey	....	visual effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Julien Andreetti	....	first assistant camera: second unit
Camille de Chenay	....	camera trainee
Alexandre Ferrini	....	assistant camera
Bertrand Follet	....	camera operator
Sarah Gouze	....	electrician trainee
Thibault Grabherr	....	still photographer
Perrotte Lara	....	camera operator
Jean-Marie Leroy	....	still photographer
Farès Messaoud	....	second assistant camera
Mathieu Poudevigne	....	electrician
Xavier Renaudot	....	gaffer
Yannick Ressigeac	....	first assistant camera
Alexandre Ricco	....	grip
Daniel Traini	....	generator operator

Casting Department
Rosa Estévez	....	casting: Spanish actresses (as Rosa Estevez Ramos)
Brigitte Fourcade	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Fabienne Margolliet	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Giulia Rodino	....	assistant editor
Alex Seery	....	digital cinema mastering
Philippe Tourret	....	digital intermediate coordinator
Mathilde Van de Moortel	....	assistant editor

Transportation Department
Karim Ferrero	....	production driver

Other crew
Sylvie Koechlin	....	script supervisor
André-Paul Ricci	....	press attache

Production Companies

• Vendôme Production (co-production)
• France 2 Cinéma (co-production)
• SND (co-production)
• Canal+ (participation)
• CinéCinéma (participation)
• France Télévision (participation)
• Banque Postale Image 4 (in association with)
• Cofinova 7 (in association with)
• Uni Étoile 8 (in association with)

Distributors

• SND Groupe M6 (2010) (worldwide) (all media)
• SND (2011) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• Albatros Film (2012) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Archibald Enterprise Film (2011) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Atlantic Film (2012) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Best Film (2011) (Poland) (theatrical)
• CDI Films (2011) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Cinemien (2011) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Concorde Filmverleih (2011) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Filmtrade - Spentzos Film (2012) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Mares Filmes (2012) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Palace Films (2011) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Praesens-Film (2011) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• SND (2011) (France) (theatrical)
• Strand Releasing (2011) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Film1 (2012) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)
• Homescreen (2011) (Belgium) (DVD)
• Homescreen (2011) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Mozinet (2012) (Hungary) (all media)
• Savor (2012) (Spain) (all media)
• Zon Lusomundo Audiovisuais (2011) (Portugal) (all media)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Neuflize OBC  bank
• Tapages  sound equipment
• Ville de Paris: Mission Cinéma  thanks

Also Known As:

"Les femmes du 6ème étage" - France (original title)

Runtime:

France:104 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | France:U | Netherlands:AL | Sweden:Btl | Germany:o.Al. (f) | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Japan:G | Argentina:13 | UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Chinchón, Madrid, Spain

Company:

Vendôme Production

Trivia:

French visa # 124615.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the street, most (if not all) men wear hats, caps or Basque berets. In France, most men stopped wearing headgear in the 1950s (in cities at least). By 1960, the vast majority of men were hatless.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Maltin on Movies: Wrath of the Titans (#1.69)" (2012)

Soundtrack:

Itsy Bitsy Petit Bikini

Absolutely delightful in every way

This is a pure delight. The director, Philippe Le Guay, has the perfect touch, never too light, never too heavy. And he is supported in this delicate balancing act by a marvellous cast, whose timing, tone and style are all perfectly attuned. The central performance in the film is given by the French comic actor Fabrice Luchini, an intelligent simpleton, a naïve bourgeois who has unexpectedly been let loose on Life. Luchini is a true marvel, a world class talent at understated comedy. He has at times the innocent puzzlement of silent comedian Harry Langdon come over his face, a kind of infantile bewilderment, but he is equally capable of snarling arrogantly as a domineering bourgeois buffoon and demanding that his boiled egg must boil for precisely three and a half minutes. He even admits that if he gets the correctly prepared egg in the morning, the rest of his day is glorious, but if he gets an egg which is too hard, his day is ruined. The task set to his maid is therefore going to determine his every day's mood! Luchini owns a large house in Paris (apparently, from what I could glimpse of a park scene, intended to be within walking distance of the quiet and sleepy Parc Monceau). He has inherited it and a prosperous brokerage and investment management business from his father. The film is set in 1962. Every day he goes to work to advise rich people how to invest their money. One of his clients is a glamorous rich widow, played unexpectedly in a cameo performance by the dazzler Audrey Fleurot from the police series ENGRENAGES (SPIRAL, 2005 onwards). Some wonderful laughs come from this association. Fleurot is reputed to be a man-eater, and Luchini's wife is worried that she will steal him from her, but little does she realize that he has barely noticed Fleurot (if you can imagine anyone not noticing Fleurot, which I cannot). This is a mere side event to the main tale. Much of Luchini's huge 19th century house is rented out to other families, and the maids of all of these haute-bourgeois people including his own live together in squalor in small servants' rooms on the sixth floor, hence the title of the film. Only one maid is of the traditional sort, an elderly Bretonne maid from Britanny, and she departs near the beginning of the film. All the rest are gabbling and gregarious Spanish women, who evidently in the 1960s were flocking to Paris to earn money to send home. They form their own tightly-knit sub-culture, invisible to their employers. Anyone who has been to Hong Kong will be familiar with the myriads of Philippino maids who are strewn all over Central every Sunday chattering away to each other in Tagalog. It is very much the same phenomenon. Luchini is married to the ultimate bourgeoise wife, formerly 'a country girl', who is now ruthlessly climbing the social ladder and, wallowing in spoilt self-pity, 'exhausts' herself every day having lunch with her friends and buying expensive dresses. She is played to perfection by Sandrine Kiberlain, veteran of 48 films, who is so often cast as a wife. Admirers of the classic L'APPARTEMENT (THE APARTMENT, 1996, see my review) will recall her waiting at the airport for her husband at the end of the film, with her wan smile and her freckles. But the main action of this film concerns the Spanish maids. While their spoilt rich employers below live lives of stultifying boredom and pointlessness, these impoverished maids, when they are not rushing off to mass and crossing themselves devoutly (all but the sullen one who has become an atheist because her parents were murdered in front of her by Franco's men), have tremendous fun, play the guitar, cook paella, dance a bit of flamenco, and live a vivacious life of their own in their rarified micro-climate on the sixth floor. When his Bretonne maid, who had served the family for thirty years, leaves, Luchini and his wife desperately need a replacement. The dishes are piled high in the sink, the lazy Kiberlain does not know how to work a washing-machine, and Luchini is desperate because he does not have a clean shirt left to wear to work. What can these poor suffering spoilt rich people do? A miracle occurs: one of the Spanish women has just had her niece turn up from Spain, a beautiful thirty-something played with inspired vivacity and satirical demeanour by Natalia Verbeke. She is an amazing actress, born in Argentina in 1975, moved to Spain was she was eleven, lived with a bullfighter, and has appeared in many Spanish TV series and films. When she becomes the new maid, a new life opens up for Luchini, and he realizes that he prefers the maids on the sixth floor for company to his own boring wife and his empty life. And he begins to fall for Natalia, which is hardly surprising, as she is so alluring. The film is at once a tasteful satire on the vacuities of the empty lives of the upper middle classes, a hilarious comedy, a sad commentary, a poignant insight into the silent suffering of people without any money, and the shattering clash of cultures which occurs when someone steps out of the one world and into the other. The film is such a joy, and its satire is so affectionate and gentle (which perhaps makes it all the more devastating), that we learn a lot about Life. And Life is in short supply these days. But prepare to laugh yourself silly, while crying sometimes. Those are the best films, aren't they?