Romuald et Juliette (1989)

That was an excellent one.

I'll tell you why so serious

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Why does this film lift my spirits when I am in the lowest of moods? It always does, and has done so for 25 years. I watch it at least once a year. Daniel Auteuil has the most expressive face. Firmine Richard, an untried ingenue when she made this, just lights up the room when she smiles. (Auteuil was brilliant as Ugolin, the dim innocent peasant of those masterpieces of French cinema - Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources, based on the Pagnol novels.) Auteuil's face is just as expressive in his role as the duped boss in this fast moving light hearted farce, where he plays the blinkered and pompous chief executive of a multi-national yoghurt producer who develops an unlikely relationship with Juliette, the office cleaner. She is a woman raising 5 children single handedly in a dump of a flat, while working nights and surviving on minimum wages and less sleep. Big, black and beautiful and totally unlike Romuald's chic, over-indulged adulterous wife, Juliette represents woman with all her emotional strength and practical virtue. The contrasts are multiple. Juliette is poor. He is rich. She is French African and black. He is slightly built and white. She is working class. He is Bourgeois. He is blind to the world he inhabits and the scoundrels who surround him. She is good, strong, independent minded and wise. This is the sweetest of films that has the extraordinary ability to reach out and give you a hug.

This is one of my favourite films; a delightful comedy; so I was thrilled to learn it is about to be released on DVD in the UK, September 2007.Romuald, played by Daniel Auteuil is a rich company president of a dairy firm. Juliette, played by the excellent Firmine Richard, is a cleaner of the company's Paris offices.Juliette, a black mother of several children, discovers a plot against Romuald who initially ignores her attempts to warn him. Slowly he grasps what this charming lady from the Parisian underclass has been trying to tell him. 'he seeks shelter in her crowded apartment as his marriage and career fall apart. An unlikely love blossoms. Cultures clash in what is a truly delightful light-hearted comedy.

i was glad that this movie did without all the supposed depth of all too many pseudo-serious interracial movies. race was one issue, yes, but so was class...and loyalty...and honesty, etc.i also loved the idea that the love affair wasn't couched solely in the 'decorative' aspects of either character's appearance. aren't our divorce courts (on both sides of the Atlantic, i daresay!) filled now with enough couples who thought 'looking good. together.' is all it takes to make a solid marriage? in any case, the tenderness and sensuality of both characters was thick enough to cut in love scenes that would have brought a rainbow to any dreary day! in other words, a light-hearted movie that's by no means a light-weight!

I don't know how I came across this film, but I think it was because of Daniel Auteuil, an actor I had not encountered before I first saw this film in the early 90s. I've since bought the video and have watched it many times. The sweet story of a myopic French executive and his black office cleaning lady is not at all racist as someone previously posted here. And it's refreshing to see a love story starring a woman with a Junoesque figure. Fermine Richard is a splendid, sexy presence, and the scene where her son is let out of prison and her greeting to him is hilarious. Daniel Auteuil, as the clueless executive whose eyes are finally opened is a sensational actor and he's actually handsome in this film. Usually he's submerged in some character, and you forget that he can be an effortless leading man. The children--his and hers--are delightful, as is Romuald's ex-wife and bumbling underlings who seek to oust Romuald from his position as the CEO of a successful yogurt company, play their absurd parts with winks and nods.Again it is the masterly hand of Coline Sereau who lets this warm comedy unfold with grace and sweetness that make for a delightful time. I had heard the film was optioned for an American version with Richard Dreyfus in the part of Romauld. Sounds awful. Watch the masterly original instead!