Ma petite entreprise

I am English but am living temporarily in Paris. I've just sat down to watch the DVD (original version with English subtitles). Although the film is a bit slow it does hold your attention long enough to enjoy it. It's a frustrating escapade sprinkled lightly with a few hilarious moments. I couldn't stop laughing when Maxime said he was disappointed in Lucie because she agreed to help with the fraud. It was worth watching for that scene alone.

Slow at first then the plot livens up. The cast is excellent. Very funny. Beautifully directed. No apparent special effects to distract you from the plot. The underlying message is clear and plausible. It even makes you wonder... I enjoyed every character, all location sets and the music from Alain Bashung.

Pierre Jolivet is one of the most original filmmaker in French

cinema nowadays, and this one is not (just) one of his best, but

a stronghold in a carrier that defies categorization. His movies

are so typically French, insofar they are snapshots of French

society nowadays, that they'll surely never be eaten up buy

Hollywood. The characters are so vivid and believable that this

movie feels more like a slice of life than a movie without

falling into the "modern realism" or "social" cinema trappings.

Besides, cinematography and acting are both wonderful, as iin

Jolivet's own noir film "Fred" ; Vincent Lindon is a marvellous

actor. If you consider that each country has a right for its own

specificity without falling into nationalistic trappings, please

states that this movie is what late nineties France looks like ;

and if not, just for a great, superiously acted and very funny

movie. This one was Jolivet's biggest success in France since

the great "Force Majeure", and it really deserved it - as the

other one which didn't get it. Jolivet is a master that can only

be compared to Spain's Julios Medam and England's Danny Boyle.

Chec

Well, I've just seen this film and I was a bit disappointed. As usual, Vincent Lindon acts very well and seems to match exactly his character in the film. But this is not enough to reedeem the lacks that "ma petite entreprise" is suffering. Indeed, the director didn't take advantage of the possibilities the scenario had to offer. He could have made an entertaining comedy and he instead gave us a boring film where all is filmed very calmly, too calmly....

A very funny comedy about the owner of a family business (Vincent Lindon) who has to use less-than-standard methods to save his company after a string of disasters. It has a perfect, well-balanced cast from the main leads to the supporting roles (an incredible François Berléand as a crooked, cowardly insurance broker), and a clever plot with many unexpected twists and turns, until the very end. What I preferred was the way it was set not in the usual unrealistic world of comedy but in true life, with credible characters and dialogues, and still be hilarious. It could also work as a very nice introduction to contemporary France to foreign viewers, quite different from the usual fare of French sex dramas or stiff period movies and more like some of the recent English "social comedies" (The Full Monty, My Name is Joe, or The Snapper, for instance).