Odette Toulemonde

On Tuesday, October 2, 2007, I went to see the movie Odette Toulemonde. This is the film with Catherine Frot, Albert Dupontel and by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

The film is about Odette Toulemonde, played by Frot, who is a cosmetics salesperson in a department store. Her all-time favourite author is Balthazar Balsan, played by Albert Dupontel. The story starts off with Odette taking a half day off of work, so she can take the bus to Brussels to meet her favourite author, since she will be attending a book signing.

However, when she gets there, she was too nervous, and so she couldn't say her name. Balthazar thought that her name was Dette, so he made the book out to her, that was kind of funny.

The film is really about Odette Toulemonde, and the life of Balthazar Balsan. We also see how each of their lives are intertwined with each other... Odette has gay son, who goes through boyfriends like kleenex. Perhaps not as bad as my friend Raoul, but who knows... Odette is always happy, always energetic, and she is the nicest person in the world. Of course, the people whom she work with, they are not as nice and sympathetic. Unfortunately, no one really takes note of her, and what she does. That's kind of sad, and she is almost constantly overlooked.

I feel like I am like Odette Toulemonde, I'm nice, I help people, but no one really takes notice of me. I feel like I'm constantly overlooked. And I feel that I'm going to be like Odette, widowed, have a family and need to do so many things. * Sigh *

But all in all, it's a fun movie... Although, there were parts of it that I was confused about... For example, why does Odette float when she is ecstatic about something? Is that kind of a cheesy representation of the metaphor of being on Cloud number nine? Oh well, something to think about.

This is a French film... Probably best to get it with subtitles, unless you speak French.