CHARLES AND LUCIE
France, 1979, 97 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Ceccaldi, Ginette Garcin.
Directed by Nelly Kaplan.
Charles and Lucie is an offbeat road film by South American director Nelly Kaplan. It is both comic and satirical in its situations and characterisations. It is also a joyful picture of eccentric old age.
1he film captures the atmosphere of French cities and the French countryside - but always with the touch of the absurd. Nelly Kaplan's reputation as an offbeat film-waker has increased over the years.
1. An entertaining comedy? Road Picture of elderly people?
2. The work of Nelly Kaplan? The feminine perspective on old age? Eccentric characters? The French?
3. The atmosphere of Paris? Charles' and Lucie's home, job? The contrast with the picaresque adventures on the road? French locations? Editing and pace? The pleasing musical score?
4. The title and its focus on the couple? Audience appreciation of them, interest in then? As a sympathetic couple? Their age, the pathos of their lives, their concierge's lodge? Charles work as an antique dealer? The Picasso fakes? His selling odds and ends? Lucie's background as a Parisian singer? Her work as a charwoman? The surprise of the long-lost cousin and the fortune, the car, the villa in the south of France? The problem of legal fees? Their arguments? Charles persuading Lucie to sell off the contents of their flat? The journey to the south? The discovery of the old shack, the car being stolen? Their pursuit by the police? Their assumption about Charles' rival and his wanting the chest of drawers? The encounter in the church, the child murderer and disarming him, the hijacking of the bus with the child murderer's gun? In the boat, out to sea, the rescue? The fortune teller - travelling and wealth? The hoodlums pursuing them, taking their clothes? Their getting the clothes from the scarecrow? Having the meal with the funeral guests? The telling of their sad story to the company - and the taking up of the collection? The police and the accusation that they are con-artists? The irony of the value of the Van Gogh portrait? The money in cash, setting off on their travels, their future as a double act in the cafes and theatres around the French countryside? The engaging nature of these picaresque adventures? A mirror of French society? The character of Charles and his relationship with Lucie? Her response to Charles? Love, disagreements, fights, shared adventures?
5. The range of characters that they meet and the quick depiction of them - the Police, the lawyer, the child-murderer, the fortune-teller, the hoodlums, the people at the funeral breakfast, the people that they met in their performances?
6. An engaging picture of elderly people - the experience of a lifetime, pathos and regrets, new hopes? Possessing things and not possessing things? The eccentric way of life and its zest?
