''Potiche'' is a 2010

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

François Ozon François Ozon (; born 15 November 1967) is a French film director and screenwriter. Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers. His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeli ...

, based on the play of the same name by

Pierre Barillet Pierre Barillet (24 August 1923 – 8 January 2019) was a French playwright. Biography Barillet was born in Paris, France. Passionate about theatre since childhood, he wrote his first play, ''Les Héritiers'', in 1945 after being a law student. ...

and

Jean-Pierre Gredy Jean-Pierre Grédy, often anglicised as Gredy (16 August 1920 – 6 February 2022) was a French playwright. Biography After studying literature and law, Grédy entered IDHEC because he wanted to write screenplays. He wrote the screenplay for ...

. It stars

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recogni ...

Gérard Depardieu Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu, CQ (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor, filmmaker, businessman and vineyard owner since 1989 who is one of the most prolific thespians in film history having completed over 250 films since 1967 alm ...

Fabrice Luchini Fabrice Luchini (; born Robert Luchini; 1 November 1951) is a French stage and film actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Potiche'', ''The Women on the 6th Floor'', and '' In the House''. For his role in the 2015 film '' Courted'' he won th ...

, Karin Viard,

Judith Godrèche Judith Godrèche (born 23 March 1972) is a French actress and author. She has appeared in more than 30 films. Early life Godrèche was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Her father is a psychoanalyst, and her mother a child therapist. He ...

and

Jérémie Renier (; born 6 January 1981) is a Belgian actor. His film debut was in the critically praised (1996), directed by the Dardenne brothers. He became better known to worldwide audiences in ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (2001) and (2005). The latter ...

. Set in 1977, the film tells the story of a submissive wife who gets to run her husband's umbrella factory, after the employees rebel against their tyrannical manager. In French, a ''potiche'' is a decorative vase, but by extension means "window dressing" or, roughly, "

trophy wife A trophy wife is a wife who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband. The term is often used in a derogatory or disparaging way, implying that the wife in question has little personal merit besides her physical attractiveness, requires sub ...

". The film competed at the

67th Venice International Film Festival The 67th annual Venice International Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, took place from 1 to 11 September 2010. American film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was the head of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Darren Aro ...

and received two

Magritte Award A Magritte Award (french: ) is an accolade presented by the Académie André Delvaux of Belgium to recognize cinematic achievement in the film industry. Modelled after the French César Award, the formal ceremony at which the awards are presented ...

nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for Jérémie Renier.

Cast

as Suzanne Pujol **

Élodie Frégé Élodie Frégé is a French singer and actress. She was the winner of the third season of ''Star Academy France''. She released her self-titled début album after winning the show. Career Frégé auditioned for ''Star Academy'' Season 3 and won ...

as Young Suzanne *

as Maurice Babin *

as Robert Pujol * Karin Viard as Nadège Dumoulin *

as Joëlle *

as Laurent Pujol *

Bruno Lochet Bruno Lochet (born 18 October 1959) is a French actor. He is best known for playing in the cult TV series '' Les Deschiens'' (1993–2002), in which he played alongside Yolande Moreau Yolande Moreau (born 27 February 1953) is a Belgian comedi ...

as André Ferron * Évelyne Dandry as Suzanne's sister

Production

saw the play ''Potiche'' by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy about ten years before he made the film. According to Ozon, the genesis of the film version was, partly, that he had been approached by the producers Éric and Nicolas Altmayer and asked to make a biographical film about

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

, and, partly, his experiences from the 2007 presidential campaign, where he followed the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

's candidate

Ségolène Royal Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election. Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014 ...

. While writing the screenplay, Ozon regularly met with Barillet, who gladly approved the tweaks made in order to enhance the story's relevance for contemporary society. The 1970s setting was, however, retained; this was both because the distance allowed the director to make a more humorous film, and because France was more politically divided in the 1970s, which made the class relations more remarkable. The political career of Suzanne was entirely Ozon's own addition to the story, which in its original incarnation ended when Robert returns to the factory. The project was led by Mandarin Cinéma, with co-production support from Production Services Belgium. Principal photography took place in Belgium from 26 October 2009 and lasted eight weeks. The film was deliberately given a theatrical look in order to create distance and give the audience a constant awareness of watching a work of fiction. An important influence for the visual style was the cinema of

Jacques Demy Jacques Demy (; 5 June 1931 – 27 October 1990) was a French director, lyricist, and screenwriter. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrat ...

. The soundtrack includes

Michèle Torr Michèle Torr (born Michelle Cléberte Tort 7 April 1947) is a French singer and author, best known in non-Francophone countries for her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg in 1966 and for Monaco in 1977. Early caree ...

with "Emmène-moi danser ce soir", "Il était une fois", "Viens faire un tour sous la pluie" and

Jean Ferrat Jean Ferrat (born Jean Tenenbaum; 26 December 1930 – 13 March 2010) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He specialized in singing poetry, particularly that of Louis Aragon. He had a left-wing sympathy that found its way into a few songs. ...

's "C'est beau la vie".

Release

The film premiered on 4 September 2010 in competition at the

. It was released in France and Belgium on 10 November. Launched in 440 prints through Mars Distribution, ''Potiche'' had 875,000 admissions during its first week in French theatres. At its peak the film was playing in 542 venues. When the theatrical run ended, the total number of tickets sold in France had reached 2,318,221. As of 28 June 2011,

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray began ...

reported that the worldwide theatrical revenues of the film corresponded to 23,157,170 US dollars.

Overseas

A subtitled version in English was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in October 2011. Clips from the film were used in "trailers" subtitled by

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, with all the dialogue reworded to be about

mobile phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

, in order to illustrate how phones can ruin a film.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 82%, based on 114 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 2010 films 2010 comedy films 2010 LGBT-related films 2010s French-language films Belgian comedy films Belgian films based on plays Belgian LGBT-related films Films about labor relations Films directed by François Ozon Films set in 1977 Films set in France Films shot in Belgium French comedy films French films based on plays French LGBT-related films French-language Belgian films LGBT-related comedy films 2010s French films