THE HOUSEKEEPER (Une femme de menage)
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten Grade: B Palm Pictures Directed by: Claude Berri Written by: Claude Berri, novel by Christian Oster Cast: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emilie Dequenne, Brigitte Catillon, Catherine Breillat Louise-Philippe Dogue, Amalric Gerard Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 7/1/03
Some ten years ago Katherine Hepburn was asked by an interviewer whether old age has any compensating qualities. "Not a one," replied Ms. Hepburn without skipping a beat, "Not even wisdom." If Claude Berri is in accord with the theme of his film "The Housekeeper," adapted by him from a novel by Christian Oster, he's altogether in agreement with the late, great American actress. Berri wants to tell his audience that when young people presuming that they were not abused or from a poverty-stricken background run into speedbumps, they bounce back quickly. They have not been around long enough to be scarred by life's inevitable injuries. By middle age, you've been around the block, you've encountered one frustration after another, yet the scar tissue never allows you to take future setbacks. Age suffers. Youth recovers.
Berri illustrates his theme in a straightforward narrative, filled throughout with humor, both bitter and joyful, with a story that could play out on a small stage as well as on the big screen. The fifty-ish Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) holds a technical job mixing music in a Paris recording studio but his home is anything but harmonious. Towels and magazines are strewn about mirroring the resident's confused mind: his wife, Constance (Catherine Breillat), has moved out. When Jacques hires Laura (Emilie Dequenne), a 20-year-old who has ended a relationship of her own and needs work as a housekeeper, he is pleased with the work, and more than happy when after a few weeks she seduces him, tells him that she loves her, and insists that Jacques return the commitment. When the two depart on a vacation to Brittany, running into Jacques' weird friend Ralph (Jacques Frantz), the entente faces its first major test.
"The Housekeeper" could be the kind of short story that could see print in the pages of The New Yorker. Berri, turning away from his big-screen deceit-cum-revenge epics "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring" (based on Marcel Pagnol's powerful novel), explores the nature of solitude and loneliness, focusing on a group of people who are living alone, including Ralph, who paints and later eats his own roosters; Constance, who walks out on her husband but later has second thoughts; Claire (Brigitte Catillon), an old friend who is not involved in a close relationship; and Helene (Axelle Abbadfie), who is going through a divorce and can't talk of anything else.
The performances are first rate; Jean-Pierre Bacri as a terminal sourpuss who appears ironically successful in winning his young housekeeper over by his crotchety behavior, and Emilie Dequenne, popping up some years after her star performance in "Rosetta" as a teen desperate to escape her life's harshness. Dequenne resembles early Renee Zellweger with her puffy face and her naive willingness to please, features which often attract older men who should know better. Notwithstanding the performances and the laid-back, bitter- sweet look at life from a May-December point of view, this male fantasy is predictable from the get-go. Its value lies as a carefully crafted study of people in love who should realize that an extended one-night stand does not make for a stable connection.
Not Rated. 90 minutes. Copyright 2003 by Harvey Karten at Harveycritic@cs.com
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