Paulette Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Paulette Blu-ray Movie Review

High, grandma.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 8, 2016

A lot of people use “literally” when they don’t really mean “literally”, but after my home state of Oregon relatively recently legalized both medicinal and recreational use of marijuana, pot dispensaries showed up all over Portland literally overnight. It’s next to impossible to drive through any neighborhood in this Pacific Northwest city without seeing at least one, and typically several, cannabis shops now, shops which were seemingly converted into their current use at the drop of a hat (and/or ballot). Things are evidently not quite so liberal in France (as ironic as that may sound), for Paulette’s whimsical plot conceit is that an aging and financially strapped woman becomes a drug dealer in order to help make ends meet. The film is notable for offering New Wave icon Bernadette Lafont a most unusual role with which to cap her career (Lafont died shortly after the film’s release in 2012-13), one which may remind some American viewers of a kind of French cousin to All in the Family ’s bigot in chief, Archie Bunker. Paulette’s credits sequence plays out to a variety of supposed home movies which chart the early history of Paulette, a woman with a knack for baking who opens what appears to be a popular restaurant. Time has not been kind to the chef, however, and the first actual scene of the film takes place in a church confessional, where the now elderly woman laments the failure of her business and the influx of all sorts of foreigners (including some who took over her shop), most of whom she refers to with disparaging terms (some of which have been bowdlerized in the subtitles, strangely enough). As Paulette goes off on “Negroes”, the camera tracks slightly left to reveal she’s confessing to a black priest, a guy who is rolling his eyes heavenward in response to her rant, as if he were asking some Divine Presence, “Hey, Lord, what did I do to deserve this kind of nonsense?”

The shock of seeing Lafont in such a disagreeable role gives Paulette a bit more momentum than might be expected, especially once it becomes clear that for all of the title character’s obvious shortcomings, a fairly traditional arc of repentance and salvation is going to be in store for her. But Paulette is at best a tiresome and abrasive old biddy (some might prefer a more redolent “b” word as a descriptor), and Lafont plays her to a tee as the film introduces a number of supporting players. The most shocking of these, at least in terms of how Paulette treats him, is her adorable (mixed race) grandson Léo (Ismaël Dramé). When the obviously precocious little boy is dropped off at Paulette’s house and asks her point blank why she doesn’t like him, she curtly replies, “Because you’re black”. So much for the blandishments of a grandparent’s supposed nurturing ambience.

No less troublesome and contentious are Paulette’s relationships with her daughter Agnès (Axelle Laffont) and (black) son-in-law Ousmane (Jean-Baptiste Anoumon), a stand up guy who, in one of the film’s too patent plot contrivances, is also a cop who just so happens to be investigating rampant drug use in and around Paulette’s dilapidated (public?) housing unit. As shabby as that domicile unquestionably is, it’s still too expensive for Paulette, and when a stream of creditors marches through her abode taking anything of value, the old woman seems to be surprisingly vulnerable all of a sudden, not that her demeanor would give any clue.

When fate conveniently delivers a brick of hashish right into her surprised lap, Paulette takes matters into her own hands, offering to return it to the local drug kingpin Vito (Paco Bloubard) if he will only offer her employment as a dealer. Vito is initially unswayed, but ultimately gives in to the old lady, and Paulette proves to be an at least generally competent saleswoman, so competent in fact that she invites the outrage of other local dealers who are not part of Vito’s network. That in turn provides the mechanism whereby Paulette’s pastry chef proclivities and the cannabis trade finally end up intersecting, with the elderly chef’s creations becoming something of a sensation.

For all its apparent (and actual) whimsy, Paulette turns out to be rather surprisingly traditional and therefore perhaps ultimately too banal for its own good. Paulette’s scabrous personality provides a steady stream of insults which may strike some as either hilarious or completely objectionable, but which at least give the film a rather aggressive, in your face manner. That makes the Scrooge-like reversal of at least some personality traits a bit hard to swallow, especially when one considers the fact that Paulette never “mellows” herself by partaking of any of the “treats” she’s concocted. Still, the film is generally rather affable despite the thorny nature of Paulette herself. The story is never even remotely believable, despite the fact that director Jérôme Enrico never indulges in any faux fairy tale trappings and tends to portray the gritty lives of some lower middle class (if not outright poor) French folks at least relatively realistically. That leaves the film somewhat afloat in some tonal imbalances, but Paulette at least offers the legendary Lafont a late career high—so to speak.

Paulette Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paulette is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists this as having been shot with the Arri Alexa, and the results are largely quite satisfying even if they never really pop in any meaningful way. An opening montage is delivered as a series of old home movies, with intentional distressing and a kind of 16mm (or even 8mm) vibe. The bulk of the film offers a suitably sharp and well defined image, though the palette is pretty tamped down, even when Paulette and her grandson venture to the seaside (see screenshot 2). Fine detail is great in close-ups, where the crags, nooks and crannies of Lafont's aged face are quite well defined. Interior scenes occasionally have slight deficits in shadow definition (including some of the scenes in the confessional, where the shrouded ambience is understandable). While the palette isn't overly vivid, colors look natural and lifelike. There are no issues with image instability and no compression anomalies.

Paulette Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paulette features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original French (with optional English subtitles). The film doesn't provide a lot of opportunities for "wow" surround activity, though there's consistent immersion courtesy of Michel Ochowiak's playful score and sequences like those involving Paulette hawking her wares in a busy tunnel or, later, visiting the seaside with Léo. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and well prioritized.

Paulette Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 8:16)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:14)

Paulette Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Once Paulette's gaggle of senior citizen gal pals get involved in her little business, some of this film starts playing like a "very special episode" of The Golden Girls. The film tiptoes right up to a purely farcical ambience in moments like these, but it never quite lunges over, preferring instead to toe the line of offering a more substantial and supposedly realistic emotional tether to Paulette herself. That ultimately may not pay sufficient dividends, due at least in part to the film's resolutely traditional character development (despite the unusual plot mechanics and the prickliness of Paulette herself). Still, it's great to see Lafont tearing it up in such a ruthless role. Technical merits are strong, and Paulette comes Recommended.