Odette Toulemonde

It's not easy for Odette: during the day, the neatly dressed cosmetics saleswoman works her tail off, while in the evening the challenges of being a housewife and mother to a gay son and a grumpy daughter await her. Only when reading her favorite author does Odette start to daydream - and literally float. So it's no wonder that Odette eagerly awaits the autograph session with Balthazar Balsan at the local library - and then fails completely. The excited Odette can't even pronounce her name correctly for the dedication, let alone confess her great admiration for the somewhat blasé fiction author. After all, bookworm and star author are alike in their failure, as the latter's latest book is literally torn to shreds by the critics shortly afterwards. The woman at his side is gone, the depression is here. And so Balthazar suddenly finds himself on the (foot)mat of his biggest fan and demands entry to Odette's modest home. And that's just the beginning of the entanglements in this romantic comedy. Catherine Frot and Albert Dupontel, who are among France's best-known actors, embody this deliciously contrasting couple constellation, with whom the greatest dreams of a toulemonde suddenly take shape. The charming story, which revels in 1960s décor, once again takes on the pettiness of the French middle classes with all kinds of amusing twists and turns. What actually unites these two people is not their painful failure, but their life in an illusory world. The only difference is that Balthazar's world is in the process of collapse, while Odette "Everywoman" knows exactly how to lift herself out of the gloom, despite all the transfiguration. She gets literally "winged" by the imaginative script ideas in the style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amélie". Sometimes a change of perspective helps. But sometimes it has to be a big pack of romance.