POPULAIRE

This breezy period romantic comedy beautifully tells the fairytale story of secretary (Déborah François), who’s intensively trained for the national finals by her insurance-company boss (Romain Duris).  Supporting the main couple is Bérénice Bejo, last seen in The Artist.

The film is a wonderful homage to the Technicolor delights of Hollywood’s golden age, with post-war austerity done and dusted and replaced by technicolour glamour all performed with light-hearted tones.

She is trapped by her small town existence working for her father, he is a stuffy successful businessman, unable to show warmth or humanity. 

The rest writes itself to some extent as this Pygmalion style romance is inevitable yet the performances are so good and the mood so charming we can forgive debut writer-director Regis Rosinard as the products, habits and social norms of the fifties are so beautifully observed and ultimately we care about this couple. 

Roman Duris and Deborah François definitely share a palpable chemistry and sexual attraction that is at the film’s heart.

This energetic, vibrant and exciting film does indeed touch on gender roles in the workplace (the small town girl who dreams of becoming a modern independent woman) but really is a cool romantic breath of fresh air of a film.