7 October 2024

Blu-Ray Review: Potiche

Potiche in literally translation means a decorative vase, but colloquially it’s is used to reference a “trophy wife”. Set in 1977, the film tells the story of a submissive wife who becomes bored of her housewife status, her husband falls on bad health due to the stress of a workers strike at his business and so she gets the chance to manage the company.

Immediately when watching Potiche it strikes you that there is something distanced from reality in the look and feel of the settings. This was intentionally placed by the director so that the audience is always aware it is a work of fiction, much like the stage play it is adapted from. The family at the centre of Potiche are, from the outside, socially placated but underneath lies hidden affairs and yearnings of unrest. There is the emergence of the woman who can take charge and have equality in the household. Catherine Deneuve as the housewife Suzanne Pujol is demure, whilst retaining a wicked edge of being as guilty and promiscuous as her husband (Fabrice Luchini). The onset of it all combined with the stilted settings gives the feeling that this is rather a filmic version of the TV show Dallas, hazy flashbacks included. Though given French sensibilities it holds a certain charm, due to cultural differences it can be interpreted in a more liberal sense.

The juxtaposition between husband and wife works to good effect; both of the characters wanting to achieve the same goal which in turn drives a divide in their relationship. Potiche turns it’s head towards the political landscape in the physical and metaphysical scale of what exactly a “trophy wife” is meant to achieve vs. what is achievable. But a somewhat easy climb to it’s pinnacle and moral bulldozing of it’s main character to it’s all too complete ending, leaves a rather hollow core. The characters are all going through their revolutionary transition but finish unresolved, in a quite literal song and dance number. The show’s over but it is isn’t complete.

Rating: 3/5

Reviewer: Dexter Kong
Rated: 15 (UK)
Release date: 10th October, 2011
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini


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