Claude Berri’s newest film is a bittersweet exploration of loneliness, ageing and finding love.
Scrawny Camille has a talent for drawing, but works as a cleaner and lives in a Parisian attic. One night, she meets a fellow tenant, courtly and erudite Philibert, who has a stutter and an aristocratic surname a mile long. Philibert lives in a vast bourgeois apartment that could be sold by his late grandmother’s estate at any moment. His roommate Franck works long hours as a cook six days a week. He drinks, smokes and beds brainless babes, but is antsy and dissatisfied. Franck loves his grandmother Paulette (Alain Resnais’ regular Françoise Bertin), who raised him, but resents having to spend precious days off visiting her after she breaks her leg. Then circumstances force all four of them to live under the one roof for a year, and to learn each other’s ways. The cast are pitch-perfect in this adaptation of the best-selling novel by Anna Galvada, which veteran director Berri has infused with a light touch.