Ferien für eine Woche

Although my memory is somewhat hazy (I saw this movie 17 years ago.), the concept of being stuck in a rut caught my attention. When the heroine takes her vacation, it is not just from work but from her personal life as well. I remember thinking about how her self-assessment would not have been as effective had she maintained her personal contacts during that time.

I am teacher. And I saw this film from the perspective of my professional status, admiring Nathalie Baye performance, inspired in nuance by nuance exploration of her character, by touching work of admirable Michel Galabru and the fair portrait of his character offered by Philip Noiret.

Al the aspects of contemporary educational system are present in this film and the portraits of love, friendship, relation with parents, olderniss and fatigue , doubts and attitudes of students are presented in admirable - precise manner.

A film about options and answers to them.

And , sure, the splendid mark of great Bertand tavernier.

"Une Semaine De Vacances" (1980) is not a film for every taste or mood. Do not expect a strong narrative - in fact, there is not the tiniest shred of plot during its 100 minutes. The celebrated writer-director Bertrand Tavernier is not a notable visual stylist, either. What he is, though, is a poet of the everyday, the banal. It's a small, quiet, subtly melancholic film about depression. Not an official follow-up to Tavernier's own "L'Horloger de Saint-Paul" (1974), though it does briefly catch-up with Philippe Noiret as the same character from that film, and it is also - refreshingly - set in Lyon. Nathalie Baye is one of the most talented French actresses of her generation and, despite what her character says at one point, very pretty, too: her smile lights up the whole screen. There are a couple of terrific songs, too. **1/2 out of 4.

Here's another strong piece of work from a giant in French cinema, Bertrand Tavernier who is always on the alert to pore over various social problems who are still topical many years after the shootings of the films. "Une Semaine De Vacances" deals with education, a domain Tavernier will explore again twenty years later with "Ca Commence Aujourd'Hui" (1999).

The first thing that springs to mind is that by discovering this wondrous movie, one realizes that Tavernier uses education to make the portrait of a French teacher, Laurence acted with sensitivity by Nathalie Baye. The latter, one morning decides not to go to her secondary school after a breakdown. Her doctor (Philippe Léotard) gives her one week's rest during which she will review her career, even her life. As she hangs around with her lover Pierre (Gérard Lanvin), family and friends and makes new acquaintances, numerous questions, doubts and fears haunt her: did she really want to devote her life to teaching? Is she reliable enough to sustain interest amid her students? Should she have children with Pierre? Through her personal quest and a fragmented narration, Tavernier seizes the opportunity to make a mixing of different issues about education both from teachers but also between parents and children (Michel Galabru and his son with whom his relationships are rather blighted and there's a Philippe Noiret cameo whose son is in prison: it's a nod to Tavernier's first film: "l'Horloger De Saint Paul" (1974)). Other points involved are loneliness, old age (Laurence's old female neighbor), doubt (one of Laurence's students doesn't trust in herself while one of her colleagues puts her teaching career to an end because she's fed up with the incessant changing reforms in education) and different steps in the life of a woman: as I previously said, Pierre is craving for children but Laurence is undetermined about this.

So, education isn't only at the core of "une Semaine De Vacances" but one theme among several ones that are explored in the space of one week. There's a lot of food for thought, reflection and at the end of the viewing, one feels much more clever and available to have a look at the world that surrounds us. It's bracing cinema as we would like to watch it more often. God bless Bertrand Tavernier!

For me, Bertrand Tavernier is the greatest French cinema director of the last 30 years. His films always have that real great sense of reality. It's also got creativity and intelligence. As I was watching fragile Nathalie Baye in this film, I was thinking what Hollywood would have done with that kind of story. The teacher will have face adversity and

realise that her duty is to carry on, even if she's not made for this work. It will have violons and tears. Here, Nathalie Baye said no to all that, and we are very happy for her. For 1 hours 45 minutes, Tavernier makes us know the deep feelings of that woman. The logic says she will quit. And so she does and we're happy. Watch good work from veteran comic Michel Galabru, in a serious part.