This film by François Ozon is a 'bagatelle' but a charming one.
We meet a CEO for a company making umbrellas - Robert Pujol (Fabrice Luchini) - and his 'potiche' (in French meaning both a big China Vase and figurehead or in this case jewelry/bijou) and wife Suzanne (Catherine Deneuve).
In his opinion her role in life is to stay at home, taking care of the house, the children and be a good hostess, a role she has clung to all her married life, until one day...
Problems occur and there is an immediate risk for a strike among the workers in the factory, an event causing Robet Pujol a heart attack.
On the same time one have to act and Suzanne Pujol contacts a union leader, Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu) and - as it happens to be - a former lover from when they were young.
He agrees to help her/them and suggests that she takes care of the business as CEO during the time her husband is hospitalized.
Her family laughs but she agrees, talks with the employees and assume her responsibility as a CEO - and this so succesfully that her husband no longer is needed when leaving the hospital.
In this film there are other questions dealt with, as for example if the son of Pujols is their son or the son of Suzanne and Maurice.
There are also interesting shifts between the formerly very conservative Suzanne and her progressive daughter, turning all around ending with the daughter becoming a 'potiche' instead of her mother, turning around again in the end.
A charming history but nothing extraordinary.
Probably a film very popular among the from-time-to-time-cinema-goer, not used to see much film but loving to see actors they know and have known for years.
We meet a CEO for a company making umbrellas - Robert Pujol (Fabrice Luchini) - and his 'potiche' (in French meaning both a big China Vase and figurehead or in this case jewelry/bijou) and wife Suzanne (Catherine Deneuve).
In his opinion her role in life is to stay at home, taking care of the house, the children and be a good hostess, a role she has clung to all her married life, until one day...
Problems occur and there is an immediate risk for a strike among the workers in the factory, an event causing Robet Pujol a heart attack.
On the same time one have to act and Suzanne Pujol contacts a union leader, Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu) and - as it happens to be - a former lover from when they were young.
He agrees to help her/them and suggests that she takes care of the business as CEO during the time her husband is hospitalized.
Her family laughs but she agrees, talks with the employees and assume her responsibility as a CEO - and this so succesfully that her husband no longer is needed when leaving the hospital.
In this film there are other questions dealt with, as for example if the son of Pujols is their son or the son of Suzanne and Maurice.
There are also interesting shifts between the formerly very conservative Suzanne and her progressive daughter, turning all around ending with the daughter becoming a 'potiche' instead of her mother, turning around again in the end.
A charming history but nothing extraordinary.
Probably a film very popular among the from-time-to-time-cinema-goer, not used to see much film but loving to see actors they know and have known for years.
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