Potiche

Spitting Robert Pujol (splendidly played by Luchini in his best arrogant, self-assured manner), a pompous, male chauvinist, owner and director of an umbrella factory against his glorious-looking, but sadly neglected spouse, Suzanne (Deneuve effortlessly assuming her age and making the best of it), the play starts by establishing that in this household the husband makes the decisions and the wife’s role is to agree and never have an opinion on anything except the dinner menu. Certainly not about how running the factory which she had inherited from her father and had graciously entrusted to husband 30-odd years ago. But then labour trouble erupts and highly-strung Robert is taken hostage by his employees. His wife is the one to deliver him from his captors with the help of a former beau, communist mayor Babin (Depardieu, more bearish than ever), and then take over the factory while her husband is sent on a cruise, by doctors’ orders. Ozon seems particularly confident in adapting stage plays to films, judging by the success of such earlier efforts as Fassbinder’s “Water Drops on Burning Rocks” and Robert Thomas’ “8 Women”. Dan Fainaru