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From Amazon.co.uk
The plot revolves around a typical bourgeois French family, their ritualised displays of affection and concern for one another barely disguising jealousies, resentments, and long suppressed hostilities. The clan gathers to celebrate the birthday of Yolande, wife of successful son and Maman's favourite Phillipe. Henri, the irascible inheritor of the bar, always in Phillipe's shadow, frets over the absence of his wife Arlette, while Phillipe worries vainly over his appearance earlier that evening on television. Rebellious sister Betty mulls over her stalled clandestine affair with Denis, Henri's sweet-natured and downtrodden bar man. Maman clucks and bullies and undermines her brood with a skill only a lifetime's practice can achieve, while poor old Caruso, the family's crippled golden retriever pants silently in the corner, waiting to die.
Along with Klapisch, stars and screenwriters Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnés Jaoui won Césars, the equivalent of a French Oscar, for their script, while Catherine Frot, who plays mousey chignoned Yoyo, and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Denis), also won Césars for their delightfully understated performances, if not for their nimble ce rock dance routine to Patti Smith's "People Have the Power". Frot's plaudits are particularly well deserved especially for her magnificent display of tipsy, barely disguised disappointment when she learns she's been given another golden retriever, doomed to develop arthritis, from her domineering mother-in-law (Claire Maurier, who also played the neglectful mother in François Truffaut's first film, The 400 Blows). --Leslie Felperin
Customer Reviews
It's a superbly crafted movie and the director handles every scene with consummate skill. Even the dog, Caruso, paralysed though he is (that's part of the story) makes a flawless contribution.
I loved the performance of Catherine Frot in the film. She was delicious and made the character of Yolande incredibly appealing and lovable. What a crying shame she should have shackled herself to such a self-centred, unappreciative husband. He was the luckiest man alive and yet too obtuse to realize it. How appallingly sad.
The high-light of the film for me was the little dance Yolande had with the quiet, philosophic bar-man Denis, played by Jean Pierre Darroussin, who, revealing his kind heart, offered to dance with her when her insensitive husband refused - despite the fact that it was supposed to be her birthday celebration. Denis's skillful dancing surprised them all, and disclosed a whole new aspect of his personality. There is a touching moment at the bar when Yolande, suspecting Betty's romantic interest and trying to encourage it, says to her with a lovely winsome expression; "He's a good dancer." And at the end of the film when Betty and Denis are seen to declare their love for each other, she says delightedly, to the chagrin of her snobbish and spiteful mother-in-law; "You know what this means? It means he's going to be part of the family."
The film, however, has some interesting characterisations of a family coming... Read more
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