Milou in May [Milou en Mai] **** (1990, Michel Piccoli, Miou-Miou, Michel Duchaussoy) – Classic Movie Review 10,450

The delightful 1990 French sophisticated comedy of manners and political satire Milou in May [Milou en Mai] [May Fools] finds director Louis Malle in mellow Chekovian mood as he delivers a gently funny, poignant country house French farce about a family trying to sort out the estate after aristocrat Milou (Michel Piccoli)’s old maman (Paulette Dubost) dies.

Because it is May 1968, there is no proper funeral and the family is in turmoil through being terrified of the communists, with the riots of 1968 taking place in far-away Paris.

With wittily incisive, often amusing writing by Louis Malle and Jean-Claude Carrière, impeccable performing and discreetly charming film-making, it looks like Jean Renoir’s La Règle du Jeu as filmed by Jean-Luc Godard from a script by François Truffaut, though the dancing around the corpse is more like Luis Buñuel.

In any case, it hits the target and Stéphane Grappelli’s score hits the spot too.

Also in the cast are Miou-Miou, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Blanc, Harriet Walter, Bruno Carette, François Berléand, Martine Gaultier, Paulette Dubost, Rozenne Le Tallec, Jeanne Herry [Jeanne Herry-Leclerc], and Renaud Danner.

Jeanne Herry, who plays little Françoise, is Miou-Miou’s daughter.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,450

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