POTICHE (François Ozon). See listing. Rating: NNNN
François Ozon’s sly feminist comedy is one big gobsmacking pleasure. Catherine Deneuve plays the title role (“potiche” means “trophy wife”), a woman who comes into her own when her reactionary, philandering husband falls ill and she takes over the family factory.
Deneuve is glorious, obviously having a blast in a story that doesn’t shy away from broad humour. Gerard Depardieu plays her one-time lover, an influential Communist MP, with equal relish.
Set in 1977, Potiche grasps that moment when women – to the shock of their more conservative family members – were just beginning to imagine what it might be like to have power.
A blast.