MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE (LA TETE EN FRICHE)


France, 2010, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Giselle Casasdeus.
Directed by Jean Becker

A deeply humane film that repays viewing.

The English translation of the title might suggest far more than the film delivers in terms of trysts and romance. But, in terms of a friendship between a 60 year old man and a 95 year old women who encounter each other in a public park, it is very rich indeed.

In looking for a google translation of the French title, I came across ‘Fallow head’. Doesn’t sound so elegant but it suggests a major theme. Margueritte (her father could not spell and wrote this version of her name on her birth certificate and the family liked it) is an elegant lady, a reader whose eyesight is failing. Germain seems a rather pleasant but oafish man who does odd jobs and lives in a trailer. He is genial and has friends at the local bar and has a relationship with a pleasant younger woman who drives one of the local buses. An unlikely pair, Margueritte and germain. But, they begin to talk, count the pigeons who come each day (Germain has given them names). Margueritte reads aloud from Camus’ The Plague. Germain does not understand much, but he imagines (vivid on screen images) the rats and their fate. Germain does not read, finds it too difficult and does not understand the words. (Another title of the film, used in Germany, is Labyrinth of Words.) Germain’s is the fallow head, ready for a new crop and growth.

There are some powerful flashbacks to Germain’s life as a boy, a fat boy who is mocked by classmates because he is slow, ridiculed by teachers and mocked by his mother who says she never wanted him. It is something of a shock to discover that he lives on his mother’s grounds. She has aged badly and still ridicules her son.

Germain is touched by his meetings with Margueritte and encouraged very sympathetically by Annette. He ventures into a library for the first time and replies to enquiries that he wants a book. A good librarian helps him out.

Although the film runs under 90 minutes, there are some fine plot developments: Germain and his bar friends and their loves, grief over spouse’s death, and a tough sympathetic bar owner. There are emotional complications with Germain’s mother’s death and his discoveries about her real feelings. Margueritte’s relatives take her away to an institution in Belgium.

Director Jean Becker, who has made a number of films about the French provinces has adapted a novel by and imbued it with sensitivity and emotion. The cast is excellent. Gaby Casasdeus was 95 when she filmed her role as Margueritte. But, the biggest tribute is to Gerard Depardieu. Looking bigger than ever, he brings Germain, oafishness, vulnerability, goodness of heart to wonderful life. Depardieu has to be one of the greatest actors of our times, able to be Danton, Cyrano, a gangster, a comic foil, a seemingly impossible romantic lead. Germain is one of his finest creations.

1. The charm of this film? Real, ordinary? An optimistic view of human nature?
2. The title? Germain and Gerard Depardieu’s presence and performance? Margueritte, the actress in her nineties, a sympathetic performance? The particular spelling of her name?
3. The town, homes, Germain’s staying on his mother’s property, her house? The café, the variety of people there? The park, the pigeons and their names? The musical score?
4. Germain as a character, his age, fat, the flashbacks to his past, the fat boy and his being mocked, the teachers, the children, his mother and her criticism, not wanting him? His seeming to be oafish? But his work, driving, walking through the town, going to the café, the range of friends, listening to their stories, griefs, the manager and his friendship? His visits to his mother and her criticism? His relationship with the young girl and her encouragement? A hard life? Going to the park and sitting for some peace?
5. Margueritte, her age, a pleasant woman, dependent on her relatives? Her meeting with Germain? Chatting, her reading Camus’, the impact of the passage on Germain? Listening, wanting to read, going into the library, the help of a kind librarian? Margueritte and the naming of the pigeons? The bond between them?
6. The effect on Germain, the effect on Margueritte?
7. Margueritte, her relatives, supporting her, having to take her to Belgium to the institution? Germain and his going to see her?
8. Germain’s mother, harshness, her death, her things, her love for her son despite what she said and did?
9. Germain and the poem, reading it for Margueritte? The picture of life, difficulties and differences? The possibility for change? Sometimes too late the, sometimes not?