Um Olhar Para a Vida

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.

The French film Une semaine de vacances (1980) was shown in the U. S. with the title A Week's Vacation. It was co-written and directed by Bernard Tavernier.

The movie stars Nathalie Baye as Laurence, a high school teacher in Lyon. She's a good teacher, but she isn't happy at school. She's not happy about her boy friend. In fact, she's not happy about much in her life, although people think she should be happy.

My problem with the movie is that it's hard to like the protagonist. People ask her if she's going to keep teaching. People ask her what she would do if she stopped teaching. People ask her if she will marry her boy friend. People ask her if she wants to have children. Her answer to each of these questions is, "I don't know."

Bernard Tavernier was a great director. Nathalie Baye is a great actor. It's no surprise that the direction and acting were fine. However, I didn't appreciate the plot or identify with the protagonist.

Bernard Tavernier died on March 25th, 2021, just a few days before I wrote this review. He directed many great films, which I recommend. However, I consider this one of his lesser films.

I think that this movie is worth watching, but it's not a must-see. It has a weak IMDb rating of 6.7. I agreed, and rated it 7.

Today, I'm not an "expert" of the work of Mr. Bertrand Tavernier. But this movie gave me a great desire to be more interested in his work.

It's a very good film about the questions, doubts, fears, anxieties that adults can feel socially and in particular through the role of Miss Laurence Cuers (Nathalie Baye), young teachers. Besides this social and depressive anxiety feeling that emerges, the film criticizes the French National Education, which thirty years later, has the same fundamental flaws by the national education process itself and even the general contemporary cultural environment, which on this point, if I allow myself, get worse.

A beautiful story and a great accomplishment captivate us throughout the film, helped by a distribution well served by Nathalie Baye and Gerard Lanvin and energized by Michel Galabru and Philippe Noiret. And the action take place in Lyon (France) is often nice to see another town than Paris in the French cinema.

A good film very interesting and rewarding.

jelios

jelios@hotmail.fr

"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.

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.