It's a struggle to get through this family drama, or maybe nervous breakdown would be a better description. The Menards are a grim bunch: Philippe is near the top of his firm, but is a miserable bully who can't stop running down his wife, siblings and anyone else who comes into view; Henri is without ambition or even contentment with his place as manager of the family restaurant--bitter wisecracks are the only contribution he's able to make to the proceedings; Betty is 30 and drifting with no husband and few job prospects. Some flashbacks to 1967 when the three were children offer some relief from the gloom.
The action is interrupted only twice; once when Denis the waiter, who functions as a sort of chorus, takes the morose Yolande onto the dance floor as the run-down Scopitone machine plays a Patti Smith song (surely an exotic number for a down-market place like this?). The other break comes when Henri leaves to try to coax his angry wife into returning to him--you are entirely on her side. I find that Cedric Klapisch enjoys making us miserable, else why would he have bothered with this story?
The action is interrupted only twice; once when Denis the waiter, who functions as a sort of chorus, takes the morose Yolande onto the dance floor as the run-down Scopitone machine plays a Patti Smith song (surely an exotic number for a down-market place like this?). The other break comes when Henri leaves to try to coax his angry wife into returning to him--you are entirely on her side. I find that Cedric Klapisch enjoys making us miserable, else why would he have bothered with this story?