My Afternoons with Margueritte

One of the most laid back films I have seen in a long time, My Afternoons with Margueritte is an extremely gentle and good-natured French film that attempts to make up for what it lacks in plot with an awful lot of charm. This is a risky manoeuvre, but one that could theoretically make for a very interesting experience.

What plot the film does have follows a gradual change in the life of illiterate workman Germain (Gérard Depardieu) when he meets the titular 95 year old (Gisèle Casadesus). The two actors play their parts well and work to create a strange but endearing couple who start to share the same passion for nature and wildlife, whilst Margueritte encourages her friend to learn to read and develop as a person. Depardieu does a good job of creating a believable and extremely likeable character, one who is kind if a little bit of a bumbling fool, who more often than not makes things far worse when attempting to help people. Yet, at the same time, as the film goes on, it attempts to put together several other stories involving its protagonist and those around him, stories that never inspire much interest. The central problem is that the supporting characters are never given enough depth, either for us to care for them or create a believable community for the action to take place in. The biggest of these subplots (which involves Germain’s problems with his mother) never really works and resolves itself in a way that seems foolish, cliché and, most unfortunately, boring.

Another big problem is that, based solely on the trailer and the feel of the film, you can easily tell where it is going and there are no surprises along the way, inevitably leaving much to be desired. Furthermore, its attempts at charm (although partially successful) often come off far too strong, resulting in the viewer finding themselves rejecting the ideas as silly and ridiculous. The film never embraces anything too dark seriously so that it can truly engage with the audience. The result is that My Afternoons with Margueritte, despite having a running time of only 82 minutes, begins to drag on and on, with several moments when you keep wanting the film to end and it simply won’t.

What we are left with is partially successful in that, thanks to its good nature, it is a hard film to truly dislike, proving that its constant attempts to charm the audience into its saccharine sweet dream world are not a complete failure. However, My Afternoons with Margueritte lacks any serious bite, which means we simply don’t care enough for the characters in their moments of despair, as there is always a feeling that it will all work out fine in the end. But the film’s biggest problem is that it becomes increasingly hard to maintain interest or cope with director Jean Becker’s attempts to create a film so nice and sweet you feel your teeth might fall out.

See My Afternoons with Margueritte at City Screen – find further details, including times, here.

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