Les femmes du 6e étage

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!

Fabrice Lucchini, famous French actor well-known for his flamboyant demeanour, is playing an invisible man in this film, which placed in Paris in the 1960's. He opens up to life while meeting the group of Spaniard maids living above his apartment. His wife, played by Sandrine Kiberlain, disagree with him because he's talking to these people who are not from the same social class. Both Lucchini and Kiberlain are very good in this film. The actress who's playing Maria Gonzalez cast, Natalia Verbeke, is offering a splendid performance. I've never seen her playing before. The end of the movie is quite common and deceiving, but it's doesn't erase the fun we had watching this very niece movie.

The nice thing about "The Women on the 6th Floor" is that it stops itself just short of being an important film with a big statement. I can't help but think of it as a lighter cousin to "The Help"; while "The Help" shoved its self-righteous social consciousness right into the viewer's face, this French comedy chooses to remain a silly romantic comedy and keep the social commentary as subtext. The wealthy protagonist isn't out to change world orders, and he really isn't all that progressive (like Emma Stone's character in The Help), he just wants to get into the Spanish maid's pants. That means the movie got a lot less attention (and would have even if we eliminated the element of Americans' strange refusal to read subtitles) but it's a lot more entertaining, a lot less irritating, and not any more shallow as far as social commentary goes.

It isn't quite a great film. It's very naive, very unrealistic, and French cinema buffs may point out that it's a throwback to films made over half a century ago. The Spanish characters are extremely stereotypical, and the romance makes less and less sense as the film goes on, most jarringly in the incredibly silly, entirely unconvincing, saccharine ending, which almost ruined the whole thing for me. Nevertheless, it's funny and enjoyable throughout, Fabrice Luchini is superb in the lead, and all the supporting characters (even the stereotypical maids) are wonderfully crafted. And interestingly, it's the ignoble motivation of the protagonist that makes him much more compelling than Emma Stone in "The Help"; as unrealistic as the story is, the character is quite real, and makes for a delightful comedic protagonist, which in turns leads to a delightful little movie.

Thank goodness I got tired of the trash that Hollywood tips out like churned mince through a mincer and decided to begin watching foreign films!

French movies, in particular, seem to have a knack for producing a love story that doesn't leave me puking with either boredom or the sheer stupidity and bad acting.

This is one such little gem. Delightful, understated, charming. When a Spanish maid moves to France she takes a job with a wealthy businessman and his detached wife. As the wife listens more and more to her malicious, gossipy society friends, she becomes suspicious of her husband having an affair.

Her husband certainly is up to many things, but he's a lovely man, played delightfully, and he's falling in love alright... with a whole new way of life.

I enjoyed every minute of this!

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")