Potiche
(A Trophy Wife)
Directed by François Ozon
France, 2010
Cornerhouse, 20 June 2011
François Ozon has been moved to worship at the altar of Catherine Deneuve, and who can blame him?
This film is a love letter to Deneuve, besides being a fine French comedy with a feminist theme, myriad misdemeanours of a sexual nature (as you might surmise) and a homage to the dresses worn by Françoise Dorléac and Catherine Deneuve herself in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. The homage takes the form of a rainbow range of umbrellas. Curious but correct.
The tone is light, frothy and gay. It moves along at a brisk, zippy, no nonsense pace. And on reflection it’s quite a subversive film an’ all.
