Les femmes du 6e étage

THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR (Les femmes du 6ème étage) is a delightful bit of French pastiche that entertains while it also provides insight into several problems - immigration, class distinction, rich controlling poor, and the polar extremes of between the wealth and the working class. Fortunately the story as written by Jérôme Tonnerre and writer/director Philippe Le Guay takes place in the 1960s, offering the audience to glance back at period when social reforms were in the gestational phase and in doing so the film allows the comedy to reign - a fact that makes the reality eventually more poignant.

The story takes place in Paris in 1963 in an elegant neighborhood where Jean-Louis Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain), a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, (Camille Gigot and Jean-Charles Deval) currently in a boarding school. Jean-Louis lives a steady yet boring life while Suanne busies herself with luncheon appointments, hair appointments, charities, etc. Jean-Louis' mother had been living with the Jouberts until her recent death and now Suzanne forces Jean-Louis to move all of the deceased woman's things to the attic on the 6th floor, an act that infuriates the longtime French maid Germaine (Michèle Gleizer) who leaves the household in disgust. Naturally everything deteriorates an Suzanne must find a new maid. She encounters Maria (Natalia Verbeke) recently immigrated from Spain, offers her a trial employment, and Maria, who becomes friends with the group of maids who live in the disgusting squalor of the 6th floor of the building: naturally these Spanish maids bond and help Maria bring the Joubert household to a state of perfection. Jean-Lois is thrilled with the new maid and discovers the other maids, hears their problems with the sewer and other poor conditions, and sets out to befriend these wonderful ladies who are living in his building : the redoubtable Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Berta Ojea, Nuria Solé, and Concha Galán. These lovely and deeply appreciative lively Spanish maids help Jean- Louis to become open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and especially in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.

The acting is first rate, the subplots embroider the main story with fine finesse, and the sense of the transformation of one wealthy but emotionally vapid man into the loving charmer he becomes makes for a very fine comedy. The ending (three years later) is a bit vapid and cheapens the story quality, but by that time the audience is so entranced with this new vision of camaraderie that it matters little. This is a refreshing, well made, exceptionally entertaining film that boast a particularly fine cast of ensemble actors. In French and Spanish with English subtitles. Grady Harp, March 12

A great movie, with wonderful actress and actor, soft, funny, intelligent and deeper as it seems apparently. If you pay attention the flick will let you think upon many things and, in any case, you will leave the theater in a good and serene mood not only in your mind, but also in your heart. Very refreshing!!! Luchini is excellent (as always) in his wonderful character. He recognize the opportunity to change his life and he seize it on. Today maybe it is hard to imagine that a rich man can show that kind of interest for people of a such different social condition. But in the Sixties sometimes that could happen, the social dehumanization was not so advanced like today, in spite of all the contradictions of those years, which are very well represented. Very good also Kiberlain as his wife. She is perfect in her attitude as snooty new rich. The whole cast of the movie and especially the Spanish women are simply great: they show how a change was urgently requested, at that time... and let us understand, today also!

In the 60's, in Paris, the middle-aged stockbroker Jean-Louis Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) is an uptight man that lives with his wife snobbish wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain) on the first floor of a building that belongs to him. Jean-Louis and Suzanne live a boring life and they have two arrogant sons in a boarding school.

When their maid quits the job, they hire the charming Spanish maid María Gonzalez (María Gonzalez) and Jean-Louis is introduced to a joyful Spanish community of maids on the 6th floor of his building. Jean-Louis learns about the Spanish costumes and improves the lives of the immigrants with minor support in their live condition. He also rekindles his own life with Maria and her friends. But when Maria unexpectedly returns to Spanish, Jean-Louis rethinks his life and values.

"Les Femmes du 6ème Étage" is a delightful romantic comedy based on the fight of classes and cultural differences between the French upper class and the Spanish immigrants in the early 60's in Paris. I loved this film, the cast, the direction, the characters and specially the lovely smile and look of María Gonzalez. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "As Mulheres do 6o Andar" ("The Women of the 6th Floor")

A great review by Robert Beames (coulden't have done it better myself!!) It has been given the more toner-friendly English language title of Service Entrance, but comic French drama Les Femmes Du 6eme Etage translates literally as The Women on the 6th Floor. Shown out of competition in Berlin, the film was very warmly received thanks in part to the performances of its sweet and amiable leading man, Fabrice Luchini, and its beautiful Spanish leading lady played by Natalia Verbeke. These actors combine with the film's leisurely pacing and entertaining scenario to ensure that it is a winsome and inoffensive crowd-pleaser.

The film, set in the 1960s, follows a wealthy, middle-aged Parisian stockbroker named Jean-Louis (Luchini) whose long-standing maid quits following a row with his demanding wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain). Unable to clean up after themselves, the couple desperately need a new maid. But when Suzanne's high society friends insist French maids aren't the done thing anymore, she enlists the help of Maria (Natalia Verbeke), a feisty, young Spanish immigrant. Jean-Louis forms an instant and obsessive attraction to her and to all things Spanish, soon striking up unlikely friendships with all the Spanish ladies who live in the servant's quarters above his home – a place he knows nothing about despite living in the building his entire life. Worlds collide and good-natured japes ensue as he helps each lady adjust to life in France whilst himself inheriting a new found love of life.

I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence that both the more shamelessly enjoyable films I've seen here up to now have been broad comedies about cultural difference and histories of mass immigration – with Almanya looking at German-Turks and Service Entrance exploring the relationship, and the comedy that comes of misunderstanding, between the French and their Spanish workforce. Immigration is still a political hot potato issue in these countries, as it remains in much of Europe, and maybe light-hearted comedy is seen as the best way to preach tolerance, reaching a bigger audience than earnest polemic. In mocking bigotry and by setting it in the past (as an old fashioned attitude) perhaps it is felt that people might be less inclined to identify with those views.

In any case both films are funny and have their hearts firmly in the right place. This French offering is gentler and less ballsy than it's Turkish-German counterpart, but no less enjoyable. The character of Jean-Louis is incredibly easy to like, being child-like in his enthusiasm for his new-found interest in Spain. The character of Suzanne is also refreshingly balanced and nuanced. She'd usually be a two-dimensional figure we would be encouraged to dislike in order to make it permissible for Jean-Louis to consider romance with Maria and yet the film doesn't go down that route: she can be annoying and insensitive but she isn't a nasty person. Maria and the other Spanish ladies are also a joy to watch as they interact with one another and fuss over cheerful little Jean-Louis.

Service Entrance is the filmic equivalent of a soufflé and certainly not a tough watch typical of the standard festival fare. Indeed it falls into the dubious realm of the "feel good" movie. But sandwiched, as it is here, between two-hour long Shakespeare adaptations, Bela Tarr movies, Argentinian slow cinema and films about nuclear disasters, it is exactly the kind of film you need to see in order to keep sane. It is difficult to say whether wider criticism in France will be anything like as positive when removed from this context on theatrical release, but here it offered exactly what was needed and nobody appreciated that more than I.

Philippe Le Guay and Fabrice Luchini, two names that go together well, are more than ever synonymous with good quality comedy. If you want to have a good time, feel free to see the three films they collaborated on: "L'année Juliette" (1995), in which Luchini makes his life awfully complicated by inventing himself a mistress ; "Le coût de la vie" (2003), where Luchini makes his life ... awfully complicated by being too tight-fisted ; and coming now "Les femmes du 6e étage" (2010), with Luchini in yet another funny role in yet another well- written comedy signed Le Guay.

This time Luchini is Jean-Louis Joubert, a Parisian stockbroker. Like Camille in "L'année Juliette" and Brett in "Le coût de la vie", the character he joyfully slips into is very imperfect and his defects and shortcomings are a sure source of laughter but, unlike in the two former films, Camille will evolve and open up to his true self, making him a more engaging hero than usual. The beginning of the movie illustrates to great effect the imperfect Jean-Louis living his regular but restricted life in his spacious luxury apartment. He is married to a stiff-necked socialite named Suzanne and has two arrogant teenage sons who, being boarders, are currently away from home. The climaxes of his life, besides making money out of thin air, are eating a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg and being bullied by his old Breton maid. But things start changing once Suzanne hires Maria, a charming young Spanish maid. For some reason some day Jean-Louis follows Maria up the stairs to the sixth floor and discovers a "terra incognita", in other words the maid's rooms below the roofs and the strange people who inhabit them, a handful of female Spanish immigrants. Against all odds this reactionary grand bourgeois develops an instant liking for these women and for their civilization. And of course, he will fall for Maria, but not only because she is pretty, mainly because she belongs to the new world he has just discovered.

A feel good movie in a way, "Les femmes du 6e étage" is much more than just that. It is also and none the less a committed film which, although set in the 1960s, denounces evils still plaguing today's society like, for example, the appalling way immigrants are exploited by their employers and ill-thought of by a majority of the natives of their "home" country, the selfishness of tourists who will not know about the political and social situation of the countries where they spend their holidays (1962's Spain can be replaced in the 2000s by Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia and many other countries)... Conversely the film is a call for tolerance and open-mindedness, for listening to one's heart rather than one's interest. But be reassured, this dimension, although crucial, remains underlying. There are no such things as preaching or political slogans, only a fine cocktail of good acting and tender humor. And sincerity. Did you know that for that matter that Philippe Le Guay had a Spanish maid when he was a kid and that his father was a broker just like Jean-Louis? Did you know that the actresses playing the maids are all Spanish and that some of them do not even speak French? That Luchini did not know a word of Spanish before starting the film? All these facts are good points which contribute to a welcome feeling of authenticity that enhances the film.

To come back to Fabrice Luchini, he is at his best in "Les femmes du 6e étage" for two reasons: first because his character is three-dimensional and goes beyond caricature (if Jean-Louis is stiff, haughty and narrow-minded it is because he reproduces the values inculcated in him both by his parents and by his social class, not because he is rotten to the core) ; second because Fabrice shows the necessary restraint quite in keeping with the role. The result is just perfect. And the rest of the cast is on the par with him: Natalia Verbeke, fresh and adorable as Luchini's love interest ; Sandrine Kiberlain, excellent as Luchini's uptight but not so superficial wife ; and the impeccable ensemble of Spanish actresses, including Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas (two Almodovar fixtures), Berta Ojea, Nuria Solé and Concha Galan, as the servants from Spain. Also to be acclaimed are Annie Mercier as the spiteful janitor and gloomy-faced Philippe du Janerand as Piquer, Luchini's right-hand man.

Intelligent, sensitive and funny, "Les femmes du 6e étage", the third effort of the winning duo Le Guay-Luchini", deserves its success at the box-office and will not disppoint you.