{"id":1358,"date":"2011-04-15T04:19:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T11:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2011-04-15T04:19:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T11:19:55","slug":"review-potiche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1358","title":{"rendered":"Review: POTICHE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Birds sing, the sky is a pleasant shade of blue, the fresh morning air is invigorating as Mrs. Pujol jogs playfully along a tree-lined road near her stately home. Her burgundy running suit, vintage 1970s, fits her trim 60ish frame perfectly. Every so often she pauses and admires the woodland creatures scurrying about. She greets her friend \u201cthe squirrel\u201d with kindness and makes poetic notes about their encounter on a tiny pad she carries with her always.<\/p>\n

Most people, even her children, refer to Mrs. Pujol as a \u201cpotiche,\u201d a derogatory term that translates in that context to \u201ctrophy wife.\u201d And the rich Technicolor, Disneyesque set up described above provides the perfect staging ground for writer\/director Francois Ozon\u2019s \u201cPotiche,\u201d a French comedy about emancipation. <\/p>\n

Adapted from a hit French play, Ozon (whose previous works include 2002\u2019s \u201c8 Women\u201d and 2003\u2019s \u201cSwimming Pool\u201d) finds in screen siren Catherine Deneuve the perfect actress to inhabit Mrs. Pujol. You see, there was a time when Pujol was Suzanne, a potiche, sure, but one who knew how to use that distinction to her advantage. And as the story unfolds, the woman of action and independence, hidden behind the facade of the trophy wife, emerges.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotiche\u201d takes place in the 1970s. Mrs. Suzanne Pujol is married to Robert Pujol, a rich captain of local industry. Robert (Fabrice Luchini) is also a letch who has for years cheated on Suzanne. Such behavior is fairly well known, even to Suzanne, who has over the years tolerated it and even came to accept it with kind understanding. Robert and Suzanne have two children Jo\u00eblle (Judith Godr\u00e8che) and Laurent (J\u00e9r\u00e9mie R\u00e9nier). Jo\u00eblle is on the verge of divorcing her husband because he travels so much and, she believes, he is cheating on her. Laurent is an artistic young man who has a girlfriend in Paris. He smokes his cigarettes with an affected amount of flair, has excellent taste in fashion, and has little interest in business or taking over the company from his tyrannical father.<\/p>\n

Into this interesting family dynamic we learn that things at the company aren\u2019t going well. They make umbrellas at the long-running family business and recently, the workers at the plant have threatened a strike if their demands are not addressed. When Robert is taken hostage at the plant by the workers, Suzanne must come to his rescue. But how she handles things will reveal that she\u2019s not the potiche everyone took her for.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotiche\u201d is a mature comedy. The relationship issues presented are handled with a high level of sophistication. Robert is a scoundrel but not the evil philanderer that we initially meet. And much time is taken to develop supporting players. Karin Viard plays Nad\u00e8ge, Robert\u2019s secretary with whom he is having an affair. While the affair is likely doomed, Nad\u00e8ge holds out hope that Robert will leave his wife. But when Suzanne takes over from Robert to run the company, Nad\u00e8ge quickly becomes Suzanne\u2019s trusted ally, almost part of the complex Pujol family. Suzanne knows that Nad\u00e8ge is her husband\u2019s mistress, but instead of that fact dividing them, it binds them together in a unique and special way. \u201cPotiche\u201d is a truly French film that might seem a bit out of step with U.S. Puritan values. However, the message the movie carries is most telling and dare I say universal. <\/p>\n

Director Ozon freely adapts the source material here. He\u2019s had great success adapting works of the stage for the screen in the past (see \u201c8 Women\u201d). Although I\u2019ve not seen the play upon which \u201cPotiche\u201d is based, I learned from the press notes that he added a third act that extends and alters the original story. And the tone of the play has been said to be more comedic that this film. Ozon mixes into the farcical elements serious melodrama giving Deneuve an opportunity to really transform in the role. And Deneuve gets help from co-star G\u00e9rard Depardieu who plays a Communist politician named Maurice Babin leading the worker\u2019s charge against the Pujol management. And like Depardieu\u2019s work in part 1 of the underrated \u201cMesrine\u201d series that made its U.S. release last year, he\u2019s still got major screen presence. In \u201cPotiche,\u201d Depardieu shares one of the movie\u2019s best and most tender moments.<\/p>\n

While the setting is decades ago, the central theme of the movie translates well to our modern time. Deneuve, the quintessential French actress, really delivers even taking us out with a song in the film\u2019s closing credits. Ozon is very much in on the joke\u2014\u201cPotiche\u201d is whimsical and highly stylized but the reality of the troubled relationships on display are concrete and credible. And the story hits home, some viewers will identify with Suzanne, Nad\u00e8ge, Maurice, and even Robert\u2014damaged souls all. <\/p>\n

\u201cPotiche\u201d should play well to sophisticated adult audiences. The comedy works, but the comment on relationships offers serious profundity. And the Technicolor theatrical design of the film provides solid entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan takes in a serious French farce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}