La Ritournelle (2014)
Directed by Marc Fitoussi

Film Review

Marital infidelity is hardly virgin territory in French cinema but director Marc Fitoussi somehow manages to give this most well-trodden of subjects a novel spin in this disarmingly astute comedy-drama, his fourth and most conventional film to date.  Starting out with what looks like a humorous take on Flaubert's Madame Bovary, with Isabelle Huppert effortlessly reprising the role she had played for Claude Chabrol twenty or so years ago (with wearing apparel that is far more redolent of pre-revolutionary Russia than Northern France in the 21st century), La Ritournelle soon carves out an idiosyncratic little niche for itself as its two middle-aged protagonists (married farmers who could not look more ill-matched if they tried) surrender themselves to the usual Gallic round of existential soul searching.  The director's knack of wedding absurdity with the cold realities of everyday existence once again results in a film that is both entertaining and slyly resonant.

Whilst Fitoussi excels in his mise-en-scène he doesn't bring quite the same level of finesse and artistry to his writing.   If a little more thought had gone into the script this could have been Fitoussi's most profound film yet.  As it is, profundity ends up being casually slain on the altar of comedic expediency (it's hard to be funny and deep at the same time, unless you are Groucho Marx or Ingmar Bergman), and so the film flails in parts, lacking the coherence and authenticity of Fitoussi's earlier films, La Vie d'artiste (2007) and Copacabana (2010).  Alongside these two marvellously conceived films La Ritournelle can't help feeling just a little shallow and predictable, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun...

As she had done in Copacabana, Isabelle Huppert positively revels in the role of a headstrong middle-aged women succumbing to a second bout of adolescent rebellion, one who is all too easily swayed into ditching her agricultural backwater for the bright lights of Paris as she chases after an irresistible Pio Marmaï (and who can blame her?).  The rampaging eczema that Huppert's character apparently suffers from is both physical and spiritual, and it's not just her feet that are itching...  Jean-Pierre Darroussin, the nerdy farmer Huppert has been implausibly tied to for over two decades, certainly has his work cut out if he is to save his marriage, and so what begins as a souped up version of Madame Bovary ends, more or less, as a cute homage to Marcel Pagnol's La Femme du boulanger, albeit with less in the way of heart-wrenching pathos.

If there is one thing that sells the film it is the bringing together of two of French cinema's best-loved stars.  It's incredible to think that this is Darroussin's first screen pairing with Huppert.  How could two such prominent French actors have escaped been thrown together in the same film for so long?  For the audience at least, it's a match made in Heaven and you end up longing for a dozen sequels.  The presence of other noteworthy performers such as Anaïs Demoustier, Marina Foïs and Audrey Dana in minor roles is an unexpected treat, but it is the deliriously enjoyable and scarcely believable Darroussin-Huppert link-up that is the film's main delight.

Film Synopsis

Brigitte and Xavier are cattle farmers in Normandy.  Whilst she is a dreamer, with her head always in the clouds, his feet are forever rooted in the mucky ground that is their everyday routine.  When their children leave home Brigitte is increasingly weighed down by the monotony of her existence.  One day, on the spur of the moment, she ups sticks and zips off to Paris.  Does Xavier realise that he is about to lose his wife?  Is it possible that, after so many years, his marriage can continue...?  Maybe it is time for Xavier to re-invent himself...