La tête en friche

A sweet trifle of a film, taken to a deeper and richer level by two outstanding performances.

Gerard Depardieu, in what must be his 6,000th film still feels fresh and alive as the overweight, under educated and well meaning laborer who can hardly read, and who strikes up a chance friendship with the 94 year old Margueritte, played with amazing delicacy and life force by the wonderful Gisele Casadesus, who was an astounding 95 herself when this was made. Oh that we all should live so long with such grace.

Marguritte begins reading to the quasi-literate Germain, who finds his interest in reading sparked, and with it an expanded sense of self. He even finds himself falling in love (in a chaste almost childlike way) with the still beautiful Margueritte.

Simplistic, sure, sentimental, undoubtedly. But much like Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman in 'Driving Miss Daisy' these two actors give performances that make you want to forgive anything that might otherwise feel trite or too on the nose (e.g. the very literal flashbacks to Germain's childhood).

Not quite a great film, but a charming, sweet, life-affirming and very human one.

La tête en friche is a beautiful little French film based on the book by Marie-Sabine Roger and adapted for the screen by Jean-Loup Dabadie and director Jean Becker. A tale of an unexpected life change that occurs when an incidental meeting on a park bench brings together an illiterate lonely man with an elderly woman whose best friends are her books in the isolation of old age, this is truly a story of transformation and a definition of pure love.

Germain Chazes (Gérard Depardieu) grew up in an unwanted home, the brunt of teachers and classmates because they considered him illiterate, and now he is forced to lead a hand to mouth existence in a house trailer close to his now elderly, crass, alcoholic mother who still loathes him. He supports himself with odd jobs and by selling the vegetables he grows in his small garden. One day he visits his lunch spot - a park bench where he has named the 19 pigeons as his only real friends - and there he meets a very properly dressed elderly woman named Margueritte (two t 's because her father didn't know how to spell!) played by Gisèle Casadesus, who spends her days reading Camus, Proust, and other French classics aloud. They bond - Germain shares his pigeons' names and Margueritte introduces him in the most gentle manner to the joy of reading. Every day thereafter the two meet and Margueritte reads to Germain to the extent that Germain decides to learn to read despite his advanced years. Margueritte's influence changes Germain's outlook and response to the world and the ending, while sad on one level, is uplifting.

Both Depardieu and Casadesus are remarkable in their roles, never becoming caricatures but blossoming into completely warm and memorable people. The French cast is exceptional and the musical score and cinematography are as beautiful as the story they reveal.

Grady Harp

Germain (Gerard Depardieu) is not illiterate. He knows how to read and write, but he really prefers not to. For one, he is not very good at reading, he goes slowly and he uses his finger to follow the lines across the page. However, his comprehension is pretty good, especially when someone reads aloud to him. He imagines the scene in his mind and if the reader is describing rats in the street he can see those rats squirming around in enough detail that it makes him uncomfortable. Not being a big fan of reading and not being known as any sort of intellectual at his local bar is just fine by Germain. He is a town handyman, a very capable gardener, appreciates his girlfriend, and is not depressed about his station in life.

His station isn't very high either. He lives in a trailer behind his mother's house and makes ends meet by being good with his hands, be it woodworking or gardening. One advantage to not having a steady 9-5 job is lunch in the park. Germain enjoys making a sandwich and leisurely eating it on his favorite park bench where he can monitor the pigeons. He goes there enough to know that in fact there are 19 usual pigeons hanging around and he even has names for all of them. It is here in the park where he meets 95 year old Margueritte (Gisele Casadesus). The park gives her a chance to escape the old folks home for a bit and read out in the sunlight.

Margueritte and Germain strike up a pleasant friendship where she reads aloud and he appreciates the stories. This is the first time in his life someone has ever taken the time to talk with him one on one about stories, how they make you feel, and what the author may have been thinking about. Germain has bad memories from his childhood, both from an unfriendly school and an uninterested mother. Margueritte sees through his thick exterior and recognizes a kind of kindred spirit, one who really appreciates a good story and crisp sentences. In another life and with decent surroundings, Margueritte surmises Germain could have been an author himself.

All of these new ideas, books, and learning makes his life a bit more uncomfortable. His friends at the bar notice his vocabulary is raising a notch or two and his girlfriend Annette (Sophie Guillemin) is starting to wonder where all of this self improvement is coming from. Give My Afternoons with Margueritte a strong point in the good script column that is sidesteps what could have been a misunderstanding with a real scene of openness, frustration, and acceptance.

Gerard Depardieu gives a very strong performance here as a guy everyone likes, except his mother, and who enjoys his life in his small town. This comes off a very good performance he had last year with Inspector Bellamy. Gisele Casadesus has shown up three times in the movies in the past few months. She has bit parts in Sarah's Key and The Hedgehog and for a lady of such an advanced age, she really has a grasp on Margueritte and how she would feel towards a man approaching middle age whose earlier experiences stunted what could have been a wonderful relationship between him and the world of books. She may be the only 95 year old in France capable of still turning out a good performance which is why she is getting every single role in France which calls for one.

My Afternoons with Margueritte is a very pleasant way to spend your own afternoon. Watching Germain and Margueritte plod through a Camus novel is refreshing and it is truly enjoyable to sit back and watch a script unfold which chooses to step away from cliché and focus on character and style.

One of the greatest performance of French actor Gerard Depardieu lately. After the more somber and underground art film Mammuth, were you recognize somewhat the frees spirited Depardieu of the cult movie "Les Valseuses" (1974), here comes an unexpected tender and touching story of an adult that can barely read and an elderly lady from a retirement home. A love story begins, her love of words and books drives his desire to finally learn to "travel with words" and their love for each other blossoms. The director is know for his love of the human kind, undeserved as it may be, he glorifies the good one can do to another human being. It is a refreshing film, not a dark satire of society, but a joyful, hopeful, moving story with a true happy end. Don't miss it !

This is a thoroughly enjoyable movie. The story of a middle-aged man who can barely read, and doesn't enjoy it, and as a result has only odd jobs that pay little. He lives in an old trailer home in his mother's back yard, because that is all he can afford.

Then one day he meets a frail, elderly woman, who charms him by her very differences: she is a retired scientist, a highly educated and cultured woman, who has a passion for literature, which she loves to read out loud. He allows her to read to him, and becomes hooked by some great literature. It opens whole new worlds to him, and changes his life for the better. It also gives him the desire to really know how to read, and he sets about learning to do so, despite all the shame that involves for an adult man.

I liked this movie so much that I read the book on which it was based afterward. The novel, with the same title, is if anything even better than the movie. The end of the movie seems a little rushed, whereas the end of the book makes complete sense and is, I found, more satisfying.

Still, this is one very fine movie, with two great performances, by Depardieu and Gaby Casadeseus. It makes you feel good, without the mush that typifies what in the U.S. are called "feel good" movies. It would be interesting to see a good American director adapt it for American audiences.