Displaying items by tag: Antony Cordier

CLASSE MOYENNE/ THE PARTY’S OVER!

France, 2025, 95 minutes, Colour.

Laurent Lafitte, Elodie Bouchez. Ramzu Bedia, Laure Calamy, Sami Outalbali, Noee Abits, Mahia Zrouki.

Directed by Antony Cordier.

While watching this very French film with very French issues, the audience may be responding with a great variety of moods. The French title simply highlights the middle-class and leaves the implications to the various standpoints of the audience. The English title, on the other hand, suggests a moral and social judgement on the middle class.

At first, the film seems to be something of a family drama with a tone of satire. The middle-class family, and a holiday at their holiday beach house which they use for only three months of the year, the pompous lawyer father, the former actress and film star mother, the daughter preparing for an acting audition, helped by her boyfriend, from a very different class, and ethnically different, from North Africa. So far, so middle-class (or with higher ambitions?).

The lawyer, with a sense of entitlement, makes impetuous demands on their caretaker, he and his family living in a house on the property, with financial arrangements for work and living arrangements, not declared for taxation purposes. And this has been going on for six years.

But, in a moment of carelessness and drinking, an outburst from the caretaker leads to all kinds of emotional, legal eruptions. Then the satire does become more serious, a lot of parody in the characters of both families – with the young lawyer boyfriend caught up in the middle, offering to be a mediator, but a victim from both sides.

The behaviour of each member of the family has its reprehensible moments, some funny to watch for the audience, some calculatingly vicious and alarming but, all the time, a lurking disapproval, amazement at the schemes, betrayals, insults, legal and illegal ploys on offer.

And, just as there seems to be some kind of resolution, there is an extraordinary and an unexpected cynical ending. So, this is the story of the middle-class and its conflicts. This is what the English title means, the party certainly over. But… Is not quite the end, and the screenplay, with a savage parody of an earlier sequence involving acting and tears, means that as the final credits roll, the epilogue ending is even more cynical.

1. The title, family expectations? Class issues, the audience identification with each family/not?
2. The tone of the title, the English title? The reality of the classes, picturing them, satirical, even cynical?
3. The French film, a French story, universal? The tone, French cultural differences, a French class distinctions?
4. The setting, the south of France, the mansion, exteriors, interiors and rooms, the grounds? The contrast with the cottage on the property? Interiors? The path between the houses? The land, the sea? The musical score?
5. The theme of acting, performance, deception? The introduction with governments and In, choosing a stage name, reversing, dramatising? Reality and fake? Her mother, long career, her films, her daughter inheriting her talent? Preparing for the auditions, her mother’s coach? The issues being able to weep? (And the end?)
6. The parents, filling in the law, their careers, middle-class wealthy, the holiday home, three months of the year? The arrangement with the caretakers, the deals, money, cash, tax issues? Security? Their personalities, arrogant manner, the quality of legal Latin? Middle-class better or worse?
7. Mehdi and his origins, Africa, studying law, all background, achievement, hopes, in love with The rounds, living in, his intentions, her parents and their tolerance? Her being in love? The discussion about her stage name, rehearsals, the issue of crime? Their time together, her hedonistic style, his being tolerated?
8. The caretaker family, the father and his role, of jobs, strong-minded wife, the daughter and her friendship with The rights? The personalities? The security of their home and work? You are treated as inferior, working class?
9. The situation, the plot sink, have been going to ask the father to come, wanting instant help, no matter what, the family celebrating their daughter’s birthday, advising to tap, the wife turning it on, the splatter over the work, the result?
10. Issues of apology, Philippe and his reluctance, the suggestion to buy gift, the pen?
11. Tony, his drinking, his outburst against the family, the issue of his shirt on the stone, class issues? The reaction of the parents, Philippe and his anger?
12. The clash, the fight, legal issues? The effect on personalities? Interpretations of the law, privacy, insults, the meetings and discussions? The tactics, each aggressive? The phone in the specially-prepared gourmet meal? Destruction of the vegetables? The sauna and the wife and her dragging the mother into the water? The meeting the two girls, friendship, anger and deceiving her friend? Stealing the cash account? The case and discussions depending on it?
13. Mehdi, offering to be a mediator, his attitudes towards both? The meetings, in the middle, the discussions? Mehdi in between the physical violence? The attitudes of everyone there?
14. The confrontation, the guns, audience response to the shooting, the death of Mehdi? The results, the discussions and the dealings, the arrangements, contracts? Securities?
15. The cynical ending with the death of the sympathetic character, lying dead and abandoned on the beach?
16. The even more cynical addendum, the daughter, the audition, her actually weeping at her self-satisfaction?
17. The effect of the satire, engine challenge, the services of?