Jean-Louis Joubert seems happy in his mundane life that is ruled by the weight of maintaining the Stockbroking Firm that has been in his family for generations, as has the mansion block cavernous apartment that he lives in with his cold fish of a wife. The setting is Paris, and the year is 1962, and the top garret of the Joubert mansion is occupied by a coterie of Spanish maids who have escaped the terrors of the Franco regime to now wait hand and foot on their bourgeois French employers who live in the Block. The Joubert’s own maid has a tantrum and leaves after working for the family for some 25 years, and is replaced by a younger pretty one, Maria, who M. Joubert quickly takes a personal interest in. Through Maria he just doesn’t stumble upon the barbaric living conditions of the Maids Quarters (no hot water and a hole in the floor toilet) which he starts to improve for them, but he discovers the wonderful warm camaraderie of the women that is so alien to his own joyless life. Meeting the maids, and Maria in particular, changes his life forever.
The totally delightful French boulevard comedy is frothy and fun, and a most enjoyable glimpse of middle class Parisian life at the time. A great ensemble piece including the veteran French actor Fabrice Luchini (‘Moliere’ ‘Paris’ etc.) with his hangdog face is pitch perfect as the put upon husband, and the wonderful Sandrine Kiberlain (loved her in ‘Mademoiselle Chambon’) was superb as the uptight wife who got exhausted just by going to the dressmaker and then playing bridge with her chums, and the maid that caught my attention was Conception played by one of Almodovar’s favorite actors the great Carmen Maura.
This is a genre I really like mainly cos. the French make comedy for adults without feeling the need to dumb down to get a cheap laugh like so many of today’s new movies.
★★★★★★★★
Labels: French, romantic comedy
