UNE FEMME DE MENAGE
THE HOUSEKEEPER |
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Director:
Claude Berri
Screenplay: Claude Berri, based on the novel by
Christian Oster.
Cast:
Laura: Emilie Dequenne
Jacques: Jean-Pierre Bacri
Claire: Brigitte Catillon
Ralph: Jacques Frantz
Hélène: Axelle Abbadie
Running time: 90 minutes
Year of production: France - 2002
Rating: Restricted (some nudity)
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
Distributor: New Yorker Films
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“Berri
makes very personal works about men who learn something
about themselves rather late in life – something
important – and “The Housekeeper” continues
to analyze this very worthy theme.”
Joe Baltake | Sacramento Bee |
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Jacques, a
fifty-year-old man on the verge of depression (his wife has
just left him), decides to take charge of his life and his
messy apartment. He hires a young housekeeper Laura who, it
turns out, has never really done housekeeping work before.
Personal problems force her to move out of her apartment,
and he allows her to stay with him temporarily. They have
nothing in common (she reads People Magazine, he reads Dostoyevsky’s
biography,) and Laura gets on his nerves. But she is so fresh,
sensual, and direct that Jacques does not resist her very
long. Their affair leads to a short romance in Brittany, but
Jacques lacks the sensitivity required for a relationship
with a young woman and Laura quickly drifts away with another
young man her age. The Housekeeper has a true capacity
for faith and hope and communicates irresistible trust in
life. At the same time, the film conveys a feeling of weariness
and skepticism in a world of great loneliness, portrayed by
Jacques and his friends, Hélène, the divorced
beachgoer; Claire, who can barely get over a breakup; and
Ralph, who lives like a hermit with chickens. Jean-Pierre
Bacri (Cuisines et dépendences, The Taste of Others)
and Emilie Dequenne (Rosetta) offer us unusually sincere
and sensitive performances.
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| PHOTO New
Yorker Films |
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