Mille millièmes (2002)

Mille millièmes is a French film comedy-drama first released in 2002, directed by Rémi Waterhouse.  The film stars Grégori Derangère, Irène Jacob, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Patrick Chesnais and Albert Delpy.  It has also been released under the title: The Landlords.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


A group of residents in an apartment block make a show of mutual co-existence at their annual meetings whilst ignoring one another for most of the year.  Some of the tenants object to charity work being undertaken by their neighbours to support homeless people; a couple have to resort to drastic means to combine their adjacent rooms into one living big apartment; some of the residents, fearing a gas explosion, want everyone to switch to electricity…

In this, his second film (after the noteworthy Je règle mon pas sur le pas de mon père), Rémi Waterhouse weaves a patchwork quilt comedy-drama centred in an unusual microcosm.  Rather like an expensive nouvelle cuisine meal, the film looks good but is actually rather an insubstantial affair.  The star-studded cast (which includes some very talented and much sought-after French film actors) is wasted, or at least seems to be inappropriate for this kind of film.  Whilst there is probably some merit in the film’s subject, with its original situation and plethora of interesting characters, the lacklustre direction, fragmented narrative and bland characterisation combine to make this a frustratingly unsatisfying film.

© James Travers 2004

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