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THE HOUSEKEEPER Send This Review to a Friend
Among my favorites in the 2003 Rendezvous with French Cinema series was "Housekeeper" ("Une Femme de ménage"), now getting a commercial release. In the film directed by the distinguished Claude Berri, Jean-Pierre Bacri plays Jacques, a middle-aged man living in solitude. When he puts an ad in a paper seeking a housekeeper, young and attractive actress Emilie Dequenne shows up playing the applicant, 20-year-old Laura, who, although having no experience, needs the job and is ready and willing.
Laura's employer is strictly businesslike about the arrangement that ensues, but the housekeeper insinuates herself into his life and home and eventually comes on to him sexually. Despite initial resistance against what he perceives to be a bad idea, the vulnerable loner finds his life re-arranged and is drawn to charm and youth. Can it last?
Berri's mature film follows the trail entertainingly, examining other relationships in the process, and "Housekeeper" becomes a sensitive, wistful and pleasurable film that examines age and youth, illusion and reality. It is exquisitely performed, often humorous and rich in detail. How it turns out should prove especially interesting to those hung up on the screen tendency for older men to be involved with much younger women.
Director Claude Berri, with such films as "Manon of the Spring" and "Jean de Florette" to his credit, approaches the subject with sensitivity and the screenplay, based on Christian Oster's novel "A Cleaning Woman," brings maturity and intelligence to the compelling story. A Palm Pictures release.
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