Odette Toulemonde

Odette Toulemonde. Now, should that be translated as "Oh, everybody's debt!" or as "Odette, just like all of us"? Probably both. This film takes up the romantic comedy genre to deal with issues which have nothing romantic or comical about them. It is a strange and interesting choice by the film's director. It is a film about sacrifice, the debt to the other, and several other non-bourgeois values which make it doubly interesting (the protagonist is a low class department store clerk). There are several allusions to Josephine Baker, the black woman who became famous in France for playing an exotic "black savage" on stage, but devoted her entire life off-stage for charity work and was much more "human" than many of her high- or middle-class fans. All in all an interesting film, not a masterpiece. Somewhat subversive in its subtle criticism and choice of genre (perhaps a genre originally meant for someone like the film's protagonist, suggesting some implicit connection between escapism and a saintly character). Recommended.

I am a big big fan of "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain". In fact, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. A friend told me about Odette Toulemonde and since she loves Amélie too, I got the DVD and just watched it.

And I am feeling very sorry and most of all disappointed now. While the movie was clearly inspired by Amélie (to say the VERY least!), it never ever gets there. Not even close.

The story is totally made up nonsense. It's actually SO made up, the characters are SO two-dimensional and uninteresting, the whole thing is SO senseless and boring it actually started to hurt physically.

And while Audrey Tautou is just totally cute and lovable and Amélie Poulain is a multi-faceted, well constructed character, Caterine Frot - sadly - has no comedic talent whatsoever and her character Odette Toulemonde is dull, uninteresting and flat.

The acting in general is way beyond terrible, so at least it's not Caterine alone that makes this movie an epic fail in my book.

Forgive my rave, but I expected something soooo different - especially since it tries so hard to "be" Amélie. I realize, that (reading the other comments) not very much people will agree with me, but nevertheless it's how I feel.

And oh, I got a DVD for sale, if you are interested ;-)

Catherine Frot is a sweet-faced, sprightly French actress who looks a decade younger than her 52 years. She's also sexy in her inimitable way, and she's always watchable and versatile (she often plays confused, if not ditzy, characters, but she can turn on the drama too; see The Page Turner).

Frot has a tendency to carry any film she's in. She's one of those few actors who just lights up the screen. Alas, when the camera's not on her, borderline 'good' films like this one suddenly lose a great deal of appeal. In short, if Frot weren't in this film, I'm not sure how redeemable it would be.

Frot plays Odette Toulemonde (loose translation: 'Odette Everyone/Everywhere'), a cheerful, unworldly, dreamy sales clerk who loves the sappy books of author Balthazar Balsan (Albert Dupontel, who in real life is 10 years younger than Frot). Odette writes Balthazar a letter that, in her simple way, is profound, and inspires the writer, a sophisticated, womanizing Parisian who quotes Proust, to uproot himself and suddenly appear at Odette's house in a small Belgian town. This internationally famous writer begs to stay with her. This is all highly implausible of course, but 'Odette' is a fantasy film more than anything else, so plausibility is a non-issue.

This has been called 'a feel-good' film. That might be true, but it also strains credulity to make us feel 'good'. Noticeably, after a promising first half, it begins to bog down in the second, showing its deficiencies by becoming frequently boring and clichéd (e.g. the all-too-familiar sullen, alienated daughter and the upbeat gay son). The film doesn't quite know where its focus is supposed to be. But if you're an incurable romantic, you might well overlook its flaws and love it. For me, it was worth watching just to see Catherine Frot scale the heights and conquer once more.

I read all the previous commentaries about this film, to see if I was alone in loving it as much as I did, and with pleasure can see that save one (out of seven) they all loved it.

Maybe I have the same mentality of this low class department store clerk, that is able to levitate when she experiences supreme happiness.

Why not.

As they show it in the movie, not only high brow literature can give you high pleasure. Some trash once in a while can be truly satisfying indeed. And being a great fan of Almodovar movies, this one gets quite close to his trashy school of philosophy. I loved it. I loved everything about this movie.

The main couple is so charming one would like to embrace them and tell them: I love you! This is the kind of fantasy movie that I would place next to "Miss Potter", "El laberinto del fauno" and "Les paraplues de Cherbourg", to me, masterpieces of their genre.

The musical numbers are delightful because apparently "house made" they seem spontaneous and very casual. They just happened as one would start dancing and singing at home because on the radio they started playing our favorite song.

I would recommend it to anybody of any age. This one should be called "La vie en rose"!

And now I can see why Josephine Baker was so successful in France as a singer. She was a very light soprano (the perfect voice for Snow White --no pun intended), but her rendition of these songs are simply delightful, after so many years, and as a bonus, they give you and incredible pang of nostalgia!!

First the positive sides: Some beautiful pictures/ shots, some funny moments, a lovely actress playing with charme and surely this will put a smile on your face. On the other hand, what comes along as "funny" is often rather serious in reality and so in my opinion, the movie wants or tries to be "lighter" than it actually is. The jokes can be foreseen (clever is something else!) and are sometimes a little forced, plus there is a lot of cliché, so the genre of "kitsch" is perfectly fulfilled. It reminded me a little of the movie "Amelie" which I disliked for similar reasons. There is better french humour, charme and "feel-good-movies" than this. All in all, this one was a bore to me.