|
|
|
Travaux, on sait quand ça commence...
2005 Musical / Comedy / Drama
| |
Credits
-
Director: Brigitte Roüan
-
Script: Eric Besnard, Philippe Galland, Jean-François Goyet, Brigitte Roüan
-
Photo: Brigitte Barbier, Christophe Pollock
-
Music: Stephen Warbeck
-
Cast: Carole Bouquet (Chantal Letellier),
Jean-Pierre Castaldi (Frankie),
Didier Flamand (Thierry),
Françoise Brion (Mamika),
Gisèle Casadesus,
Aldo Maccione (Salvatore),
Marcial Di Fonzo Bo (L'architecte),
Alvaro Llanos (Luis),
Carlos Gasca (Jesus),
Alejandro Piñeros (Pacho),
Lassina Touré (Condé),
Geovanny Tituaña (Betamax),
Shafik Ahmad (Rachid),
Giulia Dussolier (Pulchérie),
Hugh Grant (Le nouveau voisin)
-
Country: France / UK
-
Language: French
-
Runtime: 90 min
-
Aka: Housewarming
|
|
|
|
| |
Summary
Chantal is a successful lawyer who is actively engaged in championing the rights of the
less fortunate, in particular immigrants, at the cost of her personal life. After
separating from her husband, she lives alone with her two teenage children and is in no
hurry to settle down with another man. This is unfortunate because one man, Franckie,
one of her former clients, is infatuated with her. In an attempt to drive Franckie
away, and also to do some social good, Chantal hires an Argentinean architect and a band
of immigrant builders to makes some drastic changes to her apartment. It’s not long
before Chantal realises she has made a terrible, terrible mistake…
Review
Brigitte Roüan’s fourth full-length film is one of those bewildering French auteur
pieces that practically defies categorisation, and therein lies much of its appeal.
Part social drama, part song and dance musical, part farce, part fantasy, it’s a film
that breaks all the rules and which you know can’t possibly work – yet, remarkably, it
does. Anarchically unpredictable, at times poignant, most often outrageously
funny, it's a deliciously mad potpourri of a film that somehow manages to reflect today’s
busy, chaotic, fragmented world. More significantly, it dares to broach some of
the most pressing social issues in France today (immigration and racial integration),
and does so with seriousness and genuine feeling. Whilst Roüan’s eccentric
directorial style may not be to all tastes, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could not
warm to Carole Bouquet’s tour-de-force performance as an idealistic lawyer who switches
between Mary-Poppins-style optimism and abject despair as her life - and her apartment
- comes crashing down around her. If you’re not turned off by flying teapots and
cartwheeling lawyers, here’s a film that will both surprise you and charm you – a refreshingly
liberated view of the way we live now.
© James Travers 2007
|
|
Buy this film:
|
|
|
|
