Das Schmuckstück

"Your job is to share my opinion." Robert Pujol (Fabrice Luchini) to his wife.

As you can tell from the trailers and the above quote, Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve) will not remain a potiche (Trophy wife) for long in Potiche, a fluffy satire of the late '70's fascination with the feminist movement. It's a lightweight look at the emergence of a woman to run the family business in a style that melds conservative and liberal values in the form of negotiations with unions and meaningful dialogue.

The soft touch of director Francois Ozon is evident in almost every frame, from Suzanne's modest but flattering outfits to her soothing charm that binds friends and family in a humanity coming partly from her considerable beauty, even as a middle-aged woman, and partly from a script that leans to the left with good cheer.

Along the way writers Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy (both successful with Just Go with It) guarantee Suzanne will triumph in the factory and a coda that looks ahead to Hillary Clinton. Although none of the dialogue is memorable and some of the setups sophomoric, the film retains its respect for her and the mission of feminism. The sweetness of it all is that despite her philandering husband, Suzanne has a checkered past as well, making for a balanced battle of the sexes.

The film is a washout.I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would give this a good review, unless (as it would appear) they a) expected something terrible or b) it was a welcome relief from watching a spate of other movies at a festival. It is a fine tribute to Catherine Deneuve, stop. Well, maybe also a pleasant appearance and tribute to that vastly overweight, but also vastly likable and talented Depardieu. The acting otherwise was atrocious, the characters caricatures. The plot in itself was credible enough and could have been followed quite successfully to some conclusion, but then takes some uncalled for and inexplicable turns which don't do anything to resuscitate a hammy production. Avoid it unless your only other option is a colonscopy.

I first saw the French actress Catherine Deneuve in a movie in the English-language "Repulsion" in 1965 when she as just 22. Playing the 'trophy wife' of the title in this 2010 French film, Deneuve is 67 but still glamorous. When Suzanne Pujol's husband (Fabrice Luchini) - a sexist partner and a harsh boss - has to absent himself from his 300-employee umbrella factory for health reasons, she takes over and transforms both the industrial relations and the business performance of the plant with a sensitive feminine touch that makes full use of her connections including the local mayor (Gérard Depardieu).

Set in 1977 and a comedy, this is an old-fashioned and very light work that lacks any subtlety or nuance with writer and director François Ozon simply satiring both the factory owner and his trade unions (CFDT and UGT).

This film was primarily a glorification vehicle for former world beauty and French film icon Deneuve that got way too precious and obvious in its abject adoration by the end. This comedy about a tough factory owner who was kidnapped by his workers which allowed his more caring wife to take over his job was a bit better than TV quality fare and not much more than a mostly pleasant way to spend a couple of hours seeing how much a once great beauty has aged since her spot at the top of French cinema in the 60s and 70s. Deneuve's acting skill has not declined as much as her looks have but it has not improved much since then either, as her even, vapid personality made her role mostly uninteresting to me in this film just as most did back in the day. Other than her deserved status as a very attractive woman, there never was much there there. However, film always has been the showcase for the most beautiful women, as they do sell tickets no matter what kind of "acting" they do, as it's their "being" that counts more to an audience, especially to men. To their credit, the French are very appreciative and adamant about their icon worship, done very well recently in "The Illusionist" starring a graphic character of the incomparable Jacques Tati, but they went too far with little quality in Potiche.

Vehicle movies are pure vanity pieces and often dismissed as fluff homage, and usually do not recover the cost of making them as they mostly do poorly at the box office due to their too-obvious glorifying agenda where story is very secondary to the primary purpose of overt and excessive icon adoration. This film may do fine in France, but I fully expect very poor box office to be the case in America.

Unfortunately this movie is one of these movies you just want to forget about it. As usual Dépardieu saves the movie to get the pass (well the pass... 4/10), but the rest of the crew are quite dull in any sense.

The comedy is inspired in 1977/1978 in France, in the rise of the feminist. It will be nice if the director uses the 70's as a good scenario, but instead he only displays few 1970's cars and does it.

The poor sense of humor makes the movie almost unwatchable.

In the last years I have watched almost 300 movies, this is one of the worst.

Gabriel Renom