Review of Potiche (1983) by Havi E — 27 Jun 2011

A very entertaining French farce, with many of the traditional elements: complex relationships, extreme characters, lots of sexual infidelities and plenty of plot twists. But it's also a heartening tale of a long-subdued woman finally asserting herself and making a difference, and the central performance by Catherine Deneuve is majestic. Deneuve plays Suzanne, the potiche (trophy wife) of reactionary, bullying and rampantly unfaithful umbrella factory CEO Robert Pujol (Fabrice Luchini). When a strike infuriates her husband so much that he has a heart attack, Suzanne finds herself in charge of the factory. Her conciliatory, creative management style and her bohemian son's innovative designs bring new success to the previously troubled business, but of course the despotic head of her household finds this unbearable. Cue a scheme to recapture the factory for Dad involving the Pujols' conservative daughter.

'Potiche' is set in the Seventies and captures the style of the period with an eye-straining wealth of garish colour and appalling sexism. The gender politics are well observed: while 'Potiche' is a tale of female empowerment, the characters of the sensitive, progressive son and selfish, snobbish daughter ensure that it's not a simplistic story of bad men versus brave women. There's also an intriguing sub-plot involving Suzanne's past and present relationships with the man who is now the staunchly left-wing local mayor, Maurice Babin (Gerard Depardieu). As the film progresses, we learn that Suzanne hasn't always been the dutiful domestic servant that her awful husband assumed her to be⦠It's all a lot of fun, with a piquant aftertaste that comes from the realisation of how women's status has improved since the period depicted, while downtrodden employees probably now have even less real power than the strikers in this story.