Each year in Australia Alliance Francaise in conjunction with Palace Cinemas run a French Film Festival in Feb/Mar 2007 which brings out a wide selection of the previous years best french films all sub titled in English for those francophiles here but who are not able to understand the spoken word.2007 we had a wide selection of films, Depardieu, Romain Duris and this small gem I'm reviewing here. Truly it was the pick of the whole festival and by a country mile.http://www.frenchfilmfestival.org/vi...4/Default.aspxI have not seen Michel Blanc before who must be in his late 50s. THe female lead Medeea Marinescu is actually Romanian and plays a Romanian woman who Michels character brings her to France when after his wife dies he finds himself short of hot meals, clean clothes and help around the farm. Since there are few prospects for a wife in the area, he engages a marriage agency to find some help.Medeea's character and performance in this film are fantastic. You can find her other work at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0547614/ I just hope this film opens some more doors for her. If you like warm hearted, romantic comedies this is cream. Deep down I believe every man is looking for an Elena SPOILER AHEAD At the end of the film I would be running towards Elena. I'm not sure if Ayme does. If a local distributor does not pick this up they are mad (12 months later this has not happened in Australia)A word of thanks to Antonio the boss of Palace Cinemas who was sitting in the foyer of the Westgarth Cinema last night and was kind enough to open the door for me when I was making my way back with a couple of hot chocolates and a brownie. Australia cinema goers and film festival fans have so much to thank you and your family for. Westgarth since you took over has a real buzz. We are very lucky to have a film enthusiast like you running a cinema chain. (If anyone saw the story of Anthonio's family story on ABC Dynasty series recently you will know what I mean. http://www.abc.net.au/dynasties/txt/s1790161.htm

This is a charming story of unlikely companions cast together by circumstance and hard choices. It is interesting to see how the protagonists use their situation, once they have committed initially to their self interests, to pay each other back, and with love and compassion eventually find what they do not expect. Each phase of this progression is clearly imprinted in the viewer's experience from both points of view in a very patient, but not slow, immersion into the characters' hearts and psyches. The effect of this is to erase the viewer's point of view and leave the audience with a memorable impression of the whole, which is beautiful to behold.

I watched this film on an international flight from Frankfurt to Charlotte. Despite the fact that it was in French with English subtitles, I chose it from among the other tacky Hollywood choices of film and sitcoms that were available on the in-flight entertainment system.I have to disagree with the prior reviewer who said, "The plot is simple but interesting, based on two facts: - the difficulty for French farmers to find spouses willing to settle in a farm; - the difficulty for young Romanians to get a decent job in their own country".These situations only provided the context for the film. The true basis for this film is a beautiful and entertaining story of loving after loss, and the strength of human character...peppered with a clever and humorous examination of the differences in the way men and women think (which seems to be universal regardless of culture).As I returned home from 2 wonderful weeks in Europe, the French dialogue and beautiful scenery took me on a mental journey that allowed me to forget for a couple of hours more - the shallowness and wastefulness of American culture.This film is not just worth watching...if you care at all about diversity and you enjoy celebrating the full spectrum of human emotions, it's worth adding to your collection.

I can't rate this film because I saw only about the first half of it on a flight back from Paris. What I saw I loved.Comedy doesn't travel well. I'm an American, dyed in the wool, and I normally find French comedy annoying--self-conscious and stilted. This movie, however, is funny, and I give most of the credit to Michel Blanc. He is subtly hilarious as the single-minded rube trying to replace his dead wife-cum-farmhand-cum-cook-cum-housekeeper the way you or I might try to replace a pair of comfortable old shoes with new ones. He just can't make the clerk understand.I like hard comedy--vicious satire, outrageous parody, clever wordplay--and this movie is none of those. It could hardly be more conventional. The plot is that of a TV sitcom episode, and the script is studied and tame. Still, I laughed out loud every few minutes, and taking into account jet lag and nicotine deprivation, that's saying something.