Director: Regis Roinsard
Writer: Regis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt
Starring: Romain Duris, Deborah Francois, Berenice Bejo, Shaun Benson
"America for business, France for love."
-Populaire (2013)
Well, that's not strictly true since the french film industry seems to be booming worldwide recently (whilst still maintaining the romance) due to the release of extremely popular films such as "The Artist" (2012), a major Oscar winner and "The Intouchables" (2012), which was a hugely popular Oscar contender but narrowly missed out. Their newest releases is being described as a mix between "Mad men" and "The Artist". With this in mind, I was already set up to enjoy this film (slightly biased I know). Sure enough when the opening credits of Regis Roinsards' "Populaire" started rolling with a 1950s/60s style I was already in love.
"Populaire" is the heartwarming story of Rose Pamphyle (Deborah Francois). A small town girl who having just graduated from secretarial school, is trying to find work outside her small family convenience store. She finds a job working as a personal secretary to, the supposedly smoldering leading man (although I think he looks quite creepy the majority of the time) Louis Echard (Roman Duris) who is impressed with her fast typewriting typing skills. Louis goes on to enter Rose into the annual typewriting championships and becomes her mentor as well as the object of her romantic affections. Basically, this film is your standard rom-com but with a vintage twist.
The typewriter will forever be defined as a symbol for all working novelists. There is something about the pressing of the hard keys and the swift jolt of the platen to begin a new line that modern keyboards today just don't have. Typewriters are classic, sure they're a bit messy, but definitely a step up from a Shakespearean quill. In addition the typewriter can also be the stepping stone for women into the working mans world- as, apparently, the keys where to small for a mans fingers to type with, so more and more women were employed in offices; although those offices probably resembled the set up of 'Mad men' where all the women sat in rows in the middle of a room and the men were in offices behind closed doors, the increase of more women in the office was a significant move to creating modern offices of today. In modern times, having the sole ambition of becoming the fastest typist in the world may be seen as silly, but in the 50s/60s, when the number of women in the office rose to over a million, and as demonstrated in the character or Rose Pamphyle this was an immense shift in womens' power in showing what they can do.
This film is one drop in a huge ocean becoming known, in my opinion anyway, as the New Vintage. It replicates the exact style of the 50s and early 60s rom-coms films with actors like Doris Day and Rock Hudson. "Populaire's" set up and cinematography makes you forget it was made in 2013, and the sex scene seems quite out of place. This era of such grand commercial change is fascinating for modern times and still holds a massive influence on people today. From the colors, the set design, the 'costumes' (as it were), down to the way people supposedly' used to act- the New Vintage is gathering a huge following. Think about the success of "The Artist" (2012) a black and white, silent film which grossed c. $133,432,856 worldwide. So, in conclusion, going back to Roinsard's film, I expect it to be a success.
