Aux petits bonheurs (1994)
Directed by Michel Deville

Film Review

The charm of this romantic comedy owes as much to the contributions from its superlative cast as to its direction and scripting.  One of Michel Deville's most accessible films (although, surprisingly, not a commercial success), Aux petits bonheurs offers a quintessentially French look at male-female relationships, largely from the jaundiced perspective of encroaching middle-age.  With its quirky humour and playful narrative, the film manages to be entertaining as well as offering an honest, slightly poignant, reflection on mid-life crisis.  Neither outright comedy nor serious drama, the film fails to be entirely satisfying, and some of the exposition feels rather sloppy (for example, the presence of the piano-playing babysitter).  However, the film does have much to commend it - in particular, the exemplary tragicomic performances from Anémone and Hanna Schygulla.

Film Synopsis

Hélène returns to a grand country house she once visited in her youth, over twenty years ago, in the vain hope of finding the man she once loved.  Instead, what she discovers are three middle-aged couples living together under the same roof, constantly falling in and out with each other.  First there is Ariane and Pierre, who have been married quite contentedly for several years but now realise that they are drifting apart.  Ariane has begun an affair with Matthieu, who is married to Sabine and refuses to give his wife the child she desperately craves.

Then there is Léna, who is married to Bernard and has a son Michel.  With her husband away from home for most of the time, Léna has consoled herself by finding herself a younger lover, Marc.  The menagerie is completed by Cécile, a babysitter who was hired by mistake and seems unwilling to leave.  Hélène doesn't allow the absence of her old flame to get her down.  Instead, she begins to take a close interest in the disparate individuals she had not expected to find in the old house, and through them she will ultimately be led to the one she pines for...