Ma part du gâteau (2011)
Directed by Cédric Klapisch

Comedy / Drama
aka: My Piece of the Pie

Film Review

Abstract picture representing Ma part du gateau (2011)
There is a distinct touch of the Ken Loaches about Cédric Klapisch's latest film, a social comedy that makes a brave attempt to engage with the human consequences of the recent credit crunch and its aftermath.  This is the first time that the hydra of political posturing has reared its ugly heads in a Klapisch film and it is not a pleasant sight.  Despite his best intentions, the director gets a little carried away with his Marxist-Lenninist rhetoric and the film ends up looking horribly like a collision between a sick parody of a Ken Loach film and an even sicker send-up of Pretty Woman.  After twenty or so minutes, the film's laboured didactic tone kills stone dead every vestige of humour and any sympathy we may have with the protagonists.  Karin Viard and Gilles Lellouche are two talented actors who give the film their best shot, but they are so ill-suited for their roles that the scripted archetypes they are lumbered with can only end up looking like bloated caricatures of the most risible kind.  The lightness of touch and authentic charcterisation that made Klapisch's previous comedies so delightful are distinctly lacking in this film.

There is no question that Ma part du gâteau is timely and deals with a worthy subject.  It begins with an intriguing premise - what would happens if someone who was almost destroyed by the financial crisis gets to meet one of the (insert your own colourful expletives here) individuals who caused it?   The problem is that Klapisch fails to engage honestly with some difficult issues and merely uses these as the jumping-off point for what appears to be a still-born imitation of an American-style romantic comedy, with a copy of the Communist manifesto shoved unceremoniously down its gullet.    Klapisch has already explored the harsh realities of big business in his earlier comedy Riens du tout (1992), but that film had an authenticity and sharp satirical edge which are hard to discern in Ma part du gâteau.   As Klapisch tries to have his cake and eat it (imitating Hollywood and Loach as successfully as a seal pup doing an impression of a killer whale), all he has to offer his audience are a few crumbs of comfort and a meagre diet of stale clichés.  Oh what a lovely recession this is proving to be...
© James Travers 2011
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Cédric Klapisch film:
Casse-tête chinois (2013)

Film Synopsis

The wave of redundancies that is sweeping across northern France in the wake of the financial crisis hasn't spared the town of Dunkirk.  When her factory closes down, a single mother named France is left jobless, unable to make ends meet as she struggles to raise her three children.  Things are so desperate that suicide seems to be the only way out.  Once she has sorted herself out, France heads for Paris, in the hope of finding work as a housekeeper.  For once she has a stroke of good fortune.  She lands a job looking after the luxury apartment of a city trader named Steve who is constantly shuttling between Paris and London.

One day, Steve finds himself encumbered with a problem he hadn't bargained for when a former girlfriend dumps his infant son Alban on him for a month.  France gratefully accepts the massive wages her employer offers her to attend to the boy and his flat, which she does with obvious enthusiasm.  It isn't long before the young woman develops a fondness for the rich city boy, who enjoys the kind of life she can only dream of.  But then she makes a sickening discovery.  Steve was partly to blame for the factory she used to work for going bust...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.


Film Credits

  • Director: Cédric Klapisch
  • Script: Cédric Klapisch
  • Cinematographer: Christophe Beaucarne
  • Cast: Karin Viard (France), Gilles Lellouche (Steve Delarue), Audrey Lamy (Josy, la soeur de France), Jean-Pierre Martins (JP, le mari de Josy), Raphaële Godin (Mélody), Fred Ulysse (Le père de France), Kevin Bishop (Nick, le broker), Marine Vacth (Tessa), Flavie Bataille (Lucie), Tim Pigott-Smith (Mr. Brown), Philippe Lefebvre (Le PDG dans la fête), Lunis Sakji (Alban), Juliette Navis (Julie, l'analyste financière), Camille Zouaoui (Jessica), Adrienne Vereecke (Mallaury), Guillaume Ranson (Jérémie), Xavier Alcan (Le financier 'humaniste'), Xavier Mathieu (André, le syndicaliste), Zinedine Soualem (Ahmed, le père de Sofiane), Rémi Gillodts (Rémi)
  • Country: France
  • Language: French / English
  • Support: Color
  • Runtime: 109 min
  • Aka: My Piece of the Pie

The very best fantasy films in French cinema
sb-img-30
Whilst the horror genre is under-represented in French cinema, there are still a fair number of weird and wonderful forays into the realms of fantasy.
French cinema during the Nazi Occupation
sb-img-10
Even in the dark days of the Occupation, French cinema continued to impress with its artistry and diversity.
The best French films of 2018
sb-img-27
Our round-up of the best French films released in 2018.
The brighter side of Franz Kafka
sb-img-1
In his letters to his friends and family, Franz Kafka gives us a rich self-portrait that is surprisingly upbeat, nor the angst-ridden soul we might expect.
The very best sci-fi movies
sb-img-19
Science-fiction came into its own in B-movies of the 1950s, but it remains a respected and popular genre, bursting into the mainstream in the late 1970s.
 

Other things to look at


Copyright © frenchfilms.org 1998-2024
All rights reserved



All content on this page is protected by copyright