Potiche

Film Title: Potiche (Trophy Wife)

Directed By:François Ozon

Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Renier

Set in the late 70s, with a hyper-realised palette of Farrah Fawcett hair-dos and loud cardigans, Potiche’s raison d'être is a distinct moment of French civil unrest. At the crux of the story, is a subjugated housewife who unwittingly realises that her true calling is to lead her local community.

Far-fetched, you bet, but from the opening frames where every cheesy 70s-editing tool is employed, Potiche never bothers to have a bet each way. The main drawcard is Catherine Deneuve as Suzanne, the ‘trophy housewife’. Made up to look every bit her 69 years and some, Deneuve proves that there is more to her repertoire than that of a slightly mysterious sex symbol.

Holed up in an ostentatious mansion, Suzanne is bored to tears, but she just doesn’t know it, yet. Totally subjugated by her megalomaniac husband Robert, and sidelined as a relic by her bossy daughter Joëlle (Judith Godrèche), Suzanne wakes from her slumber when thrust into the frontline, confronting striking workers at the family umbrella factory.

Que a slightly surreal set of circumstances where Suzanne renews an old friendship with the socialist Mayor, Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu), and skeletons start tumbling out of the closet. Deneuve hits every comic note with deadpan mischievousness and with Depardieu playing the perfect foil; Potiche is a curious delight.

It’s pretty transparent where director François Ozon is heading, but that doesn’t stop him having some fun with red herrings along the way. Echoing themes consistent with contemporary French governance under Nicolas Sarkozy, Potiche is a very amusing and superficial dissection of class politics that most viewers will identify with. Great performances, awesome clothes and a visual style that borrows from the whimsical end of The French New Wave; Potiche is one of the better French farces released in the last decade.

Best Thing: Catherine Deneuve’s cheeky persona.

Worst Thing: The caricatures of the French working class.

See it with: A hand knitted cardigan and spray on bell-bottoms.

Rating: 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Mark Orton