Odette Toulemonde

French cinema distinguishes itself, and let's admit, sometimes annoys because of excessive intellectualism and philosophical commitment, but often stands out for products like Odette Toulemonde, having no pretence of intellectualism, but being just enjoyable, naif, and truly lovely. The overall atmosphere is one of being out of reality (although some prosaic hints are to be found, for example in the difficulty of a single-mother to raise her children, in a context of material difficulties), of having one's head in the clouds, never wanting to come down to the earth, of living in a kind of space-time suspension, pervaded by the, maybe, too easily optimistic trust that everything will work out, in the end.

To be honest, some interesting messages are not to be understated: don't take yourself too seriously, happiness will come when you really believe in it and are ready to accept it, it is your attitude to life that makes things good or bad, and not vice versa. Not to mention that irrational miracle which is reading, that sound and deep communion created by the writer between the reader and the fiction, capable of shifting us away from reality and moving us to another, unreal but more emotionally authentic world.

But what really gets the viewer is the delicate and odd character of Odette, naif but intelligent enough to understand that life is a miracle to be tasted and enjoyed and that there's no point in persisting in feeling pessimistic: just smile and life will smile at you.

First the positive sides: Some beautiful pictures/ shots, some funny moments, a lovely actress playing with charme and surely this will put a smile on your face. On the other hand, what comes along as "funny" is often rather serious in reality and so in my opinion, the movie wants or tries to be "lighter" than it actually is. The jokes can be foreseen (clever is something else!) and are sometimes a little forced, plus there is a lot of cliché, so the genre of "kitsch" is perfectly fulfilled. It reminded me a little of the movie "Amelie" which I disliked for similar reasons. There is better french humour, charme and "feel-good-movies" than this. All in all, this one was a bore to me.

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!!

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.

Odette Toulemonde. Now, should that be translated as "Oh, everybody's debt!" or as "Odette, just like all of us"? Probably both. This film takes up the romantic comedy genre to deal with issues which have nothing romantic or comical about them. It is a strange and interesting choice by the film's director. It is a film about sacrifice, the debt to the other, and several other non-bourgeois values which make it doubly interesting (the protagonist is a low class department store clerk). There are several allusions to Josephine Baker, the black woman who became famous in France for playing an exotic "black savage" on stage, but devoted her entire life off-stage for charity work and was much more "human" than many of her high- or middle-class fans. All in all an interesting film, not a masterpiece. Somewhat subversive in its subtle criticism and choice of genre (perhaps a genre originally meant for someone like the film's protagonist, suggesting some implicit connection between escapism and a saintly character). Recommended.