Matcollis
This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
FrogGlace
In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
peloignon
Odette Toulemonde is the first feature film directed by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, French writer born in 1960, mostly known for his plays. This movie is a fairy tale for little girls who became mature women too fast. If this is your case, or if you are able to appreciate that kind of people, you will be able to appreciate the tenderness and sensitive feelings that emerge from this little movie played well and well realized. You could give this film an 8. Otherwise, your interest will be quickly suppressed and a 4 would be reasonable given that we have certainly seen much worse. Hence the average, for I am torn between these two attitudes vis-à-vis this film ...
Fat Freddy's Cat
In some ways a remake of Amelie, in others very different indeed, with a layer of fantasy added to the surrealism of the earlier movie, and a Dennis Potter tendency to break into song at the drop of a hat, or even a feather. In Odette's case it is the songs of Josephine Baker which inspire her. Unlike Amelie, Odette is no longer young, but a widowed middle aged mother of two late teens, who struggles to keep her head above water. She is in no way chic, in fact quite the reverse, with a serious taste for all things kitsch. She is not from Montmartre, not even Parisienne, but a resident of Charleroi, a Belgian city south of Brussels famous only for its heavy industries of coal and steel. Style points seriously lacking in her life, and escapism into trashy fiction is what keeps her going.Then when she least expects it, her life changes, and to tell any more would be a spoiler. Cynics amongst us may hate it, but the journey she travels as a result is reaffirming of optimism in life, and tells a story that wealth and fame are illusory bubbles, and that those who chase them are in for a surprise when they burst.Watching it I was reminded of Adrian Henri's beautiful little poem, with the line "Love is a fan club with only two fans". Watch it.
Niv_Savariego
Odette Toulemonde. Now, should that be translated as "Oh, everybody's debt!" or as "Odette, just like all of us"? Probably both. This film takes up the romantic comedy genre to deal with issues which have nothing romantic or comical about them. It is a strange and interesting choice by the film's director. It is a film about sacrifice, the debt to the other, and several other non-bourgeois values which make it doubly interesting (the protagonist is a low class department store clerk). There are several allusions to Josephine Baker, the black woman who became famous in France for playing an exotic "black savage" on stage, but devoted her entire life off-stage for charity work and was much more "human" than many of her high- or middle-class fans. All in all an interesting film, not a masterpiece. Somewhat subversive in its subtle criticism and choice of genre (perhaps a genre originally meant for someone like the film's protagonist, suggesting some implicit connection between escapism and a saintly character). Recommended.
writers_reign
Erich Emmanuel Schmitt is best known for adapting other people's work for both stage and screen rather than for Original Screenplays so an Original for his directorial debut is something of a rarity. As it happens I saw one of his most recent adaptations on the Paris stage when he took Noel Cowards 'Private Lives' and 'adapted' it to within an inch of its life so much so that what Coward wrote as a duet plus two thankless supporting roles emerged at the pen of Schmitt as a full-blown quartet. Armed with this information I had mixed feelings about Odette toulemonde even though he had obviously hedged his bets bu casting Catherine Frot in the lead. When she puts her mind to it no one can do Adorable like Frot (see Un Air de famille or Les Soeurs fachees) just as when she puts her mind to it no one can do Evil like Frot (see Vipere au poing) in short she's one of the best in the business: were she to read this fulsome praise she may have trouble keeping her feet on the ground which is precisely her problem as Odette; she is prone to levitating at odd moments from sheer joie de vivre though it may help if, as she does, you know a guy who resembles Jesus Christ, thinks nothing of walking on water and when last seen was walking up a hill carrying on his shoulders a large block of wood. A mother with teenage children but no husband Odette is ripe for romance and finds it via best selling novelist Albert Dupontel, as unhappy in this branch of the Arts as he was when he played a concert pianist for Daniel Thompson in Fauteuils d'orchestre. With actors like Frot and Dupontel - and Frot lip-synching Josephine Baker for good measure - you have to work at it to turn out something from the Kennel Club and Schmitt pulls off a hugely entertaining debut.
