Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Potiche Blu-ray Movie Review

What is it with Deneuve and umbrellas anyway?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 19, 2011

Here’s some unsolicited advice to Hollywood (and indeed international) actresses of a certain age, those who find themselves visiting plastic surgeons or Botox emporiums repeatedly until they’re virtually unrecognizable as a member of the human species: take a look at one Catherine Deneuve. Yes, she’s probably preternaturally blessed with an incredible set of genes, but like several other European actresses, she’s let herself age. What a refreshing change of pace. So she’s put on a few pounds, and her blonde hair doesn’t quite glisten with its youthful élan. So what? She’s still incredibly gorgeous, and she still frankly looks like a million bucks despite currently creeping up on 70 years. This iconic actress who seemed to personify French chic in the 1960’s has managed to create one memorable character after another rather early in her career in such disparate fare as Repulsion, Belle du Jour and those two inimitable Jacques Demy musicals Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and then just kept going with such memorable films as Indochine (for which she received an Academy Award nomination) and The Hunger. If Potiche isn’t exactly Deneuve’s most demanding role, it’s a sweet natured and gently funny little film that manages to poke and prod several sex role stereotypes, not to mention the French national obsession with sex generally, all the while not really running away from the fact that it’s dealing with people of a certain age who probably should all know better by now.

Perhaps at least part of the reason for Deneuve’s longevity and ability to allow herself to age naturally on screen is the simple fact that she was never merely a sex symbol. Deneuve’s early work, while obviously full of incredible allure and an almost mystical beauty, was also highlighted by unusual intelligence and depth of characterization. This was a beauty with a brain, in other words, and it’s interesting to note that that’s part of the subtext of Potiche. The word “potiche” literally refers to a decorative vase, but has attained a colloquial status of “trophy wife,” and Deneuve’s character Suzanne Pujol in Potiche is sick of being a pretty wind-up doll unable to voice her opinion or do anything other than bake cookies in her well appointed kitchen (her husband makes a point of mentioning how spoiled she is, to which Suzanne replies that, yes, she’s the Queen of Kitchen Appliances).

In what is probably merely a coincidental reference to Deneuve’s iconic role in Demy’s Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Suzanne Pujol is the daughter of a magnate who founded a huge umbrella factory, a factory which her officious husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini) has made over in his extremely uptight, high blood pressure image. Unfortunately for Robert, he’s managing an activist set of employees who are rife with what he thinks is a Communist ideology, and soon his workers have started a strike and even worse, taken Robert himself as hostage. That sets Suzanne up to not only be savior of the immediate situation, but to discover her own voice and self worth in the process.

Despite its rather overt sociopolitical screed-like elements, Potiche is at its core a farce, one built around a cascading series of subtly changing interrelationships, aided and abetted by the fact that the rabble rouser Suzanne turns to for help in freeing her husband, Mayor Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu), was a long ago lover of hers. On the flip side, Robert has been dallying with his no-nonsense secretary Nadège (Karin Viard), readying the territory for an intertwined series of events where no one seems to be happy in their current state of affairs, but can't quite bring themselves to commit to anything new, either.

Potiche is best in its smallest elements. The opening sequence, where Suzanne encounters a series of woodland animals and reacts to them like some kind of neo-modern Snow White, is both odd and just slightly surreal, almost echoing Deneuve's vaunted work with Luis Buñuel. And, later, when her daughter Joelle (Judith Godrèche) shows up, one is instantly struck by her Farrah Fawcett hairdo, one which some viewers may find bizarrely reminiscent of Kristin Wiig’s in MacGruber. While its female empowerment scenario may strike some as old hat, with Deneuve’s masterful interpretation it actually seems at least relatively fresh and most certainly very enjoyable. And the rather sweet interplay between Deneuve and Depardieu, who by now have a handful of collaborations between them, is palpable, if in its own way as bizarre as those Fawcett hairdos. After all, what could a ravishing beauty like Deneuve see in a bear like Depardieu? Ah, well, opposites attract.

If Buñuel found a dark and even slightly lunatic side to Deneuve’s sexuality in one of her most iconic roles in Belle du Jour, Potiche’s director François Ozon dials things back ever so slightly from the Buñuel surreality, while at the same time amping up the absurdist content, at least at times. It’s rather odd, then, that Potiche becomes surprisingly serious in its third act, when Suzanne decides that her newfound voice may provide her some political opportunity. While this aspect of the film is still played ostensibly lightly, it makes the soufflé just slightly heavier than it was before, if no less tasty. Still it's a bit peculiar that two thirds of this film concentrates on the seesawing power structure between Suzanne and Robert at the umbrella factory, and then kind of cavorts off onto this tangent, albeit one linked with the overarching theme of Suzanne discovering herself.

While the shortcomings of the original play upon which Potiche is based can’t entirely be avoided, there’s a lot that can be said for star power, and that’s what this film has in abundance. If the material is sometimes less than scintillating, somehow in the able hands of Deneuve and Depardieu, as well as a game supporting cast, it often seems better than it actually is. Ozon proved himself a rather facile handler of pastiche in 8 Women, another film featuring Deneuve, and he brings that same craft to Potiche. The film is bright, colorful and just this side of camp, but it’s also slyly self-deprecating and pleasantly unironic. This “trophy wife” may not indeed have won first prize, but it’s certainly a worthy contender.

Potiche Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Potiche is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Ozon has purposefully filmed Potiche to look like the 1970's, and so an odd assortment of bright colors co-existing with more neutral tones makes the palette here very variegated and appealing. The overall image sports well above average fine detail, but it also has been intentionally pushed at times, giving a somewhat soft, contrasty look to a lot of the outdoor footage especially. Close-ups, though, don't shirk from revealing the nooks and crannies of both Deneuve's and Depardieu's aging faces, for better or worse. There are a couple of very brief moments of aliasing late in the film when a couple of characters are wearing houndstooth, and a couple of the dimly lit interior scenes suffer from moderate crush, but otherwise this is an artifact free presentation.

Potiche Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Potiche is offered with a lossless French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which does just fine for this basically small, dialogue driven film. Surrounds do come into play fairly regularly in some of the umbrella factory scenes, especially those with the raucous strikers. The film also features a wealth of source cues, and those also spill into the surrounds with appealing brightness and excellent fidelity. Dialogue is crisp and clean and very well mixed. There's really not much here that draws a lot of overt attention to itself, but the track is full bodied and sounds just fine, and certain suffices perfectly well for the sort of modified bedroom farce Potiche is at its core.

Potiche Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:07)
• Making of Potiche (SD; 1:12:01) is comprised entirely of behind the scenes footage of various scenes being shot, with Ozon giving direction to the actors.
• 70's Trailer (SD; 2:10) isn't really a trailer, but more like a recap of the film's premise in a 1970's style.
• Costume Tests (SD; 5:42)

Potiche Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Potiche is a slight film, but it's so well intentioned and it features such luminous performances from Deneuve and Depardieu that it seems downright curmudgeonly to dwell on its faults. It's never laugh out loud hilarious, but Potiche is often gently, sweetly humorous and it manages to deal with a number of fairly serious issues in a non-threatening way. It's just so wonderful to see Deneuve at this stage of her career still out there doing such nice, nuanced work. If she is just the tiniest bit scary at the end of Potiche, singing a victory song a la John Ashcroft after she's won an election, at least everyone can agree with the sentiments of the lyric she's singing: "Life is beautiful." When life includes Catherine Deneuve, it most certainly is. Recommended.