Summary
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...
Review
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.
© James Travers 2003
|
