Odette Toulemonde

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'll watch anything starring Catherine Frot, who is simply divine. This film is surreal & moving & everything I was looking for when I watched it.

It's the kind of film I could watch again & again. Frot made me care deeply about her character. I highly recommend this film.

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!!

This is typically the kind of feel-good movies that only the french can do. I think they're just good at building characters. Most American wanna-be feel-good movies sound fake and formated, besides a few masterpieces such as Forrest Gump.

French movies, with much smaller budgets, manage to create true atmospheres, poetry and character sublimation.

I think Odette Toulemonde (which could rather be translated by "Emily Smith" or "Mrs Anybody") precisely shows these 3 criteria.

And above the love-story stands an intelligent and subtle demonstration of the vacuity of snobism, elitism, and condescension.

In other words being rich and famous may lead you to a love-less life, and money can't buy happiness. It all sounds naive or puerile, but the director's talent, the solid script with lots of poetry and humor, and above all the amazing performances of both lead characters justify the same vote I gave to Amélie.

It's better to live with remorses than regrets, thus be happy and enjoy life !

In some ways a remake of Amelie, in others very different indeed, with a layer of fantasy added to the surrealism of the earlier movie, and a Dennis Potter tendency to break into song at the drop of a hat, or even a feather. In Odette's case it is the songs of Josephine Baker which inspire her. Unlike Amelie, Odette is no longer young, but a widowed middle aged mother of two late teens, who struggles to keep her head above water. She is in no way chic, in fact quite the reverse, with a serious taste for all things kitsch. She is not from Montmartre, not even Parisienne, but a resident of Charleroi, a Belgian city south of Brussels famous only for its heavy industries of coal and steel. Style points seriously lacking in her life, and escapism into trashy fiction is what keeps her going.

Then when she least expects it, her life changes, and to tell any more would be a spoiler. Cynics amongst us may hate it, but the journey she travels as a result is reaffirming of optimism in life, and tells a story that wealth and fame are illusory bubbles, and that those who chase them are in for a surprise when they burst.

Watching it I was reminded of Adrian Henri's beautiful little poem, with the line "Love is a fan club with only two fans". Watch it.