MA PART DU GATEAU** half, Cédric Klapisch 2011
Dramatic comedy
French unemployed ex-factory worker mom with "Balls and Waves" meets International moneyed trader beast needing a house cleanerWide range of everyday life from Dunkerque to super fancy Parisienne penthouse apartment w a view to the Eiffel tower of a top notch International trader. Karin Viard is very good in this movie, she usually plays "matter of fact" gd sense middle age women. As HK Chinese people say, someone with "balls and waves" - (Balls are not the palm size male type but the armful female type) she plays a zesky factory worker, after being laid off attempted suicide but rapidly sprung back up to be retrained as house keeper/cleaner. Scenes of her exaggerated foreign accent are outrageous v gd - this is a comedy. In real life, going from a suicide recoverage bed to being the boisterous confident women is not v realistic - it sets up unlikely premises. So she goes on, someone who made pitance wage to this ultra fancy apt. Received by an non-native French man - maybe Maroccain origin, father of a young worker friend from the factory who owns a training formation for house cleaners mainly for immigrant women. She was asked to fake an accent to not appear strange in his cohort. The scene was played correctly the man was v courteous and helpful and not more, he gives v sensible advice how to make a gd impression on a client. And she does her boisterous part. She showed no signs of having to adapt to the new boss at home - but continues and even accompanies him to high level London dinner. Where she plays once again boisterous "phony Russian" accents. Slap stick style almost.
The gd scenes are when she sleeps - matter of factly, she out of chummy friendship and him sex needs - so they continue the everyday conversation in bed. She doesnt feel that shes "lower" than him - how could this be? Her income depends on him? If she were so confident, she would not have committed suicide at the beginning already due to being fired! But this is a comedy... so we move on, she overheard him talking on the phone to a colleague, that "he also just jumped on/"made" the cleaning women" - then she knew that she is nothing to this crude animal of big money, high finance.
Without deciding before hand, she somehow lost sight of the little boy but out of the situation, she decided to teach him a lesson by forcing him to come to Dunkerque to see what "trading" means to the lives of the factory which was forced to close.
Police comes after her, during a community event, where little kids did a v nice flash dancing number. She was taken by the police, locked in the car, while her kids and factory friends came to her support they surrounded the police truck/car, blocked the guys who followed in his fancy racer, attacked him physically, and pushed him out of the way and he had to run away, chased him out of the scenery.
And we see Karin Viard, a smile broke through her face, she started to laugh.
End of film.
The chain of pearls which did not hang straight overallThis is a comedy afterall, not realistic, the little scenes that the movie is composed of are realistic, but the overall story line and belivableness of the events are not so - its almost like a movie wanting to be a comic book. But it would not really work, because, comic book representations would miss the live aspect of the little scenes. The compressed sequences of exaggerated key actions are what comic books are famously gd for, but here, the gem is in the detail of each action, not in the storyline itself. So it wouldnt have worked. Its a strange film w nice individual scenes but hangs crooked and forced as an overall film work.
The central story line is build on one after another highly implausible premise. Even though each scene is well played and has a richness and accuracy in detail independantly - but marred by the awkward unnatural overall stringing of pearls itself, as a necklace of a film: it turns this into a small film of amusement to charm audiences for a laugh.
Very Gd Details in each scene:ie scenes in the cocktail reception at home, Karin had to serve fancy caterer food to the guests, and meanwhile her daughter calls to say she wants to have a tattoo on her body if its ok. She just roughly said "NO", and no discussion... while rattling the tray to be nice to the guests. Viard is a v gd actrice, this is the reality of a working mom whos first concern is her children. Its her family, her children which come first. Mountains of money means nothing if this part is not set right - she tells her boss to read a story to his son.
The little boy is really cute, he has an angel face with accompanied unconscious naughtiness - the face in an Italian Renaissance painting.
The choice of the boy actor, his cute angelic appearance is very important. In reality, big moneyed person usually do not necessarily have angelic faced kids, if this kid was a little less beautiful and natural, the whole film ambiance would swerve towards a less comedic drift; imagine a kid, ordinary, crying, sad faced (as you see in a lot of families where the parent only gives moneyed gifts but not time) there will be no place for Viards cheerfulness to begin. She would have to play a more slow paced, patient type of figure facing a sour faced child.
The children at the beginning talks about the mothers suicide amongst friends, each kid expresses what they think, what they saw, they dont agree w suicide even though times are tough and the daughter says she understands that a mom could sometimes break down too... there is a healthy exchange shown here, that problems could be talked about from the adult world to the childrens world, each one comprehends the situation at their level. Even though Viard just came back from the hospital, she had to organise a housefull of kids to make sphaghetti dinner - for everyone. The reality of a working mom, there is no break, no rest. You just get back on the horse immediately after the fall.
The "boss", the money animal, he sees a mannequin, a young girl, innocent looking, invites her to venice - but rushed around jumps off the Gondola to go back to watch the trading on his computer. He has no time for romance - unlike what the girl expected even though she is already in the world of blasé luxury wear modelling. He bought her a deep blue satin baby doll underwear. To her, its nice gift, but to him, he watches the dressing up of the live doll for him to play together. He did not really see her as a person with her needs. Hes not the old folky 007 sexy fighter who cared enough to romance her - even a tiny bit, even for the duration of a wkend trip. Acting is v gd, his love making is rough, coerced near raping, he did not care for her willing or not. He covered her mouth w his palm to not hear what she had to say. No break for him too, hes on the go, every hour means another 60,000euro, depending on a tiny fraction of a cent, but over a million, profit is profit. He must keep on the ball.
Forced story pushers:Viard wears a short skirt w a side slit when doing vaccuuming - hmm, I think few house cleaner could afford to wear clothes like this to do house chores - do you see in any other film that cleaning ladies wears such clothes? She was costumed to suggest a role where we could also believe that - yes, he might, just might also consider her to be in the picture beyond the cleaning lady role.
The "boss" meets the ex/still ongoing -flame; he cries, she still comes to help him chase down the fleeting Viard w his son. She gives advice, never let the "femme menage" spk to you like this - even though he is on friendly terms w Viard through the daily living experiences and kindly in bed sympathies exchanged; but due to practical, and social conventions, he stiffens to become the "boss", buttressed by the girlfriend, no softness here. So he calls the police and started the chase. (When a normal phone call with kinder voice would have resolved the whole mystery, but we need action, so onto the next scene...)
Everything fits, maybe stuffed fit, or forced fit.
Still very gd w many authentic details, alive and kicking with Viard, the "Ball and Wave" woman. Charming all the way.
Would Cédric make a film less sweet in the future? It would be v gd when he does.Maybe his necklace is a loaded necklace, string up everything and go go go. All the beautiful and scratched beads all strung together to fit into 2hrs.
