7 ans de mariage (2003) - film review

Alain and Audrey have been married for just seven years, but already the spark has gone out of their love life.  Audrey is so preoccupied by her work and her daughter, Camille, that she appears to have lost all interest in sex.  As a result, Alain has to satisfy his conjugal needs in secret with cheap pornography.  Concerned that his marriage may be failing, Alain decides to consult a sex therapist, Claude, who gives him advice on how to revise his wife’s romantic appetite.  After some traumatic visits to sex shops and some very peculiar nightclubs, Audrey’s frigidity quickly begins to melt away.   As the extent of Audrey’s newly rekindled taste for the erotic becomes apparent, Alain realises that he is in for much more than he bargained...

After some tentative first steps into filmmaking, Didier Bourdon has at last proven his credentials as a director with this riotous yet extraordinarily true-to-life comedy-drama centred around mid-life marital crisis.  Bourdon (who is better known as an actor) stars in the film, alongside the talented and delightful Catherine Frot, making a convincing husband-and-wife double act, in a situation which allows both actors to show their true worth.

Well-written, directed with flair and imagination, and with some exquisite acting, 7 ans de mariage is a triumph for its director.  The film’s memorable comic situations skilfully complement the sombre realism of the central plot (the seven-year itch being a real phenomenon which has caused all too many marriages to fail).  Whilst it succeeds in making us laugh, 7 ans de mariage does not demean its subject with cheap vulgarity or excessive crudeness, but instead provides a mature, well-considered reflection on a situation which is easily recognisable.

The film’s popular appeal is borne out by its success at the box office (with over 350 thousand ticket sales within the first week alone in France).    It is almost worth the price of the cinema ticket just to watch Jacques Weber’s performance as the sex therapist or to see Catherine Frot hamming it up in a leopard-skin costume.

© filmsdefrance.com 2003

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