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Quelques jours avec moi
1988 Drama / Comedy / Romance
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Credits
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Director: Claude Sautet
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Script: Jacques Fieschi, Claude Sautet, Jérôme Tonnerre, based on a novel by Jean-François Josselin
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Photo: Jean-François Robin
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Music: Philippe Sarde
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Cast: Daniel Auteuil (Martial Pasquier),
Sandrine Bonnaire (Francine),
Jean-Pierre Marielle (Monsieur
Fonfrin),
Dominique Lavanant (Madame
Fonfrin),
Danielle Darrieux (Madame Pasquier),
Vincent Lindon (Fernand),
Thérèse Liotard (Regine),
Gérard Ismaël (Rocky),
Philippe Laudenbach (Monsieur Maillotte),
Tanya Lopert (Madame Maillotte),
Dominique Blanc (Georgette),
Jean-Pierre Castaldi (Max),
Elisa Servier (Lucie),
Xavier Saint-Macary (Paul),
Alain Doutey (Le commissaire),
François Chaumette (Georges Bassompierre),
Jean-Louis Richard (Dr. Appert),
Maurice Travail (Monsieur Travel),
Carlo Nell (Barman)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 131 min
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Aka: A Few Days with Me
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Summary
Martial Pasquier returns home after a spell in a psychiatric home. His mother, the
head of a successful supermarket chain, hires him to look into the accounts of some of
her less profitable stores. Martial’s first port of call is Limoges, where he gets
off to a bad start with store manager Fronfrin. Martial worsens the situation by
stealing the Fronfrins’ housemaid, Francine, the only person he has any sympathy for.
Francine is equally attracted towards Martial and agrees to move into his rented apartment.
But their affair is cut short when Martial is called back to Paris. Returning to
Limoges a short time later, Martial is devastated by the news that Francine has left him
to start a relationship with another man...
Review
Quelques jours avec moi is another engaging romantic
drama from director Claude Sautet, this time featuring the dream pairing of Daniel Auteuil
with Sandrine Bonnaire, two of the finest actors in French cinema. It is an attractive
film, marred slightly by some unconvincing characterisation and bizarre plot twists, but
sensitive performances from the two lead actors compensate for most of the deficiencies
in the script. The eccentric Fonfrin couple - played to perfection by Jean-Pierre
Marielle and Dominique Lavanant - provide an amusing counterpoint to the romantic drama,
even if Sautet’s attempt at satirising their bourgeois milieu does come across as clichéd
and simplistic.
As in most of Sautet’s films, the entourage of friends and family are an important
ingredient in the drama, although the director is perhaps being somewhat optimistic in
the way that his characters are able to set aside their social differences and prejudices
to form friendships. The worlds of the Fronfins and Francine are so far apart that
it is unlikely that a set-piece dinner party would bring them together - yet somehow Sautet
manages to just about make this plausible. Whilst probably not the director’s best
work, Quelques jours avec moi is a satisfying
piece, hilariously funny in places, exceptionally poignant in others. Daniel Auteuil
would star in Claude Sautet’s subsequent film, the magnificent
Un coeur en hiver (1992).
© James Travers 2006
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