15/02/2011

Shown out of competition yesterday at the Berlinale, Philippe Le Guay’s Service Entrance [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is a tender and nostalgic comedy about class differences set in Paris in 1962.

Centred on a very traditional stockbroker who discovers a group of Spanish housemaids living in his apartment block, the film fits into a classic vein and flirts dangerously with caricature and feel-good moments without, fortunately, lapsing into sentimentality. The quality acting manages in the end to create an entertaining and unpretentious alchemy that exudes a certain freshness where love and Europe shine through.

The film’s anti-hero, the well-mannered Jean-Louis Joubert (a flawless Fabrice Luchini) lives a highly regimented life with his wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) who is always "exhausted" by her bridge games with her poisonous female friends, her appointments at the dressmaker’s, her receptions and charitable works. But when their long-standing Breton governess is dismissed from the household, a slice of Spain enters the couple’s life (the children are at boarding school) in the form of pretty Maria (Natalia Verbeke) who lives on the top floor with her colleagues Conception (Carmen Maura), Carmen (Lola Dueñas), Dolores (Bertea Ojea), Teresa (Nuria Sole) and Pilar (Concha Galan).

"Monsieur Jean-Louis" will gradually explore this world of domestic employees ("they live above our heads and we know nothing about them"), captivated by their simplicity and joie de vivre to the point of altering his behaviour before astonished family and friends.

In the tradition of theatrical works about master-servant relations, Service Entrance good-humouredly pokes fun at the stiff codes of a rather culturally xenophobic bourgeoisie ("she’s a gem, you almost forget she’s Spanish"), but also points out the difficulty the housemaids have in accepting any social transgression ("the boss must stay in the boss’s house").

This good-natured film advocates spontaneity, solidarity and good humour, helped by the irresistible smiles of its Spanish actresses. But it also paints a brisk portrait of a past era when the Costa Brava was an original holiday destination for wealthy French people and the bigotry of Spanish economic immigrants contrasted with the anti-Francoism of the political refugees. As Le Guay points out: "Well before the European Union was a political reality, Europe was built in the 1960s. Spanish people were there, among us, on street corners and in parks".

This trip back 50 years in time bathed in nostalgia, much like Mr. Joubert’s feelings for Maria, lends the film a rather old-fashioned charm far removed from the harsh social realism that remains undeveloped in the story. This unabashedly tender flick may nonetheless prompt some to want to rediscover Luis Buñuel’s Diary of a Chambermaid.

(Translated from French)