Milou en Mai
France,
1989, 108 min
Shown in 1990
CREDITS
- dir
-
Louis Malle
- prod
-
Vincent Malle
- scr
-
Louis Malle, Jean-Claude Carrière
- cam
-
Renato Berta
- editor
-
Emmanuelle Castro
- mus
-
Stéphanie Grappeli
- cast
-
Michel Piccoli, Miou-Miou, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Blanc, Bruno Carette, Paulette Dubost
- source
-
Orion Classics
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Film shown at the first annual gala for the San Francisco Film Society. Louis Malle and Miou-Miou appeared at the screening and gala.
OTHER
"I have decided to be happy, because it's good for one's health." Quoting Voltaire, Milou anchors Louis Malle's wry, cynical, forgiving portrait of the bourgeoisie circa 1968 to this sanguine outlook. In a gracious country home set in the woods and vineyards of Bordeaux, the just-deceased family matriarch lies in state while, in the next room, the radio roars with news of May '68: exuberant revolution in the streets of Paris, strikes across the nation. Milou, her son, has spent a lifetime of gentle bucholic hedonism in this house; as the family descends to bury grandmère, bicker over the estate's division, eat, drink, flirt and argue over political goings-on, Milou (Michel Piccoli) marks the end of an era with philosophical acceptance and good humor. Zestful acting sparks this ensemble piece; Miou-Miou (La Lectrice, SFIFF 1989) as his daughter, an uptight matron and a panopoly of vocal, funny, worldly, naïve, embittered, idealistic characters. The casting of Paulette Dubost as the grandmother evokes Jean Renoir; she played the maid in Rules of the Game 50 years ago. Like Renoir, Malle celebrates earthly beauty, the search for happiness, however muddled and the resonant complexity of emotions, however conflicted, even while deftly skewering the deceits and pretentions of this family reunion.
—Alicia Springer
FACTOID #384
Henry Fonda attended the SFIFF in 1967 to receive a tribute for his work in classics like The Grapes of Wrath and 12 Angry Men. Daughter Jane showed up in 1975 for a tribute of her own. And her brother Peter made two Festival appearances, one as a guest in 1963 and another to accompany the film Nadja (in which he gleefully portrayed Dr. Van Helsing) in 1995.
