France,
1999, 118 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Pascal Thomas
- prod
-
Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Frédéric Sichler
- scr
-
Jacques Lourcelles
- cam
-
Christophe Beaucarne
- editor
-
Catherine Dubeau
- cast
-
Catherine Frot, Barbara Schulz, Odette Laure, Marie-Christine Barrault, Didier Bezace
- prod co
-
Ah! Victoria! Films; Euripide Productions; France 2 Cinema
- source
-
ArtBox, Le Barjac, 1, boulevard Victor, 75015 Paris, France. FAX: 33-1-44-25-01-95
OTHER
High-heeled dynamo Pierrette sails from one home, one job and one romance to another with devil-may-care charm anchored by cool practicality. Fresh from marital breakup, Pierrette arrives in Paris to reintroduce herself into the lives of her grown children. Undaunted by her penniless condition, she gamely rolls up her bolero sleeves for whatever experience awaits her—be it a classroom of incorrigibles, a stodgy society dinner party or a stretch in the slammer. Here’s a woman in search of her own pleasure who’s neither a ditz nor a devil—she may be impulsive, but she’s a cut above the mopes, naysayers and phonies that surround her. Thomas’s wry comedy observes Pierrette’s trajectory across various layers of Parisian society with an insouciance that mirrors its heroine. It has a rare and winning comic tone: fresh but not frantic and disdainful of obvious irony. And like Pierrette, it’s too nonchalant to work hard for laughs. It’s so, well, Parisian. Catherine Frot captures Pierrette beautifully and creates a character who is alluring, more vulnerable than she first appears and pretty damn infuriating.
—Alicia Springer
FACTOID #217
A sporadic SFIFF tradition, fashion shows are lighthearted affairs that help raise funds for the Festival. In 1968, Oakland designer Richard Tam mounted a show at the Fairmont Hotel that attracted high society; the Examiner commented that the show ’combined Tam’s simple daytime elegance with his almost theatrical evening gowns.’
