Promotion canapé (1990) - film review

Catherine and Françoise are excited at the prospect of leaving their provincial home and starting a new life with the Postal Service in Paris.  But, from Day One, they are subjected to sexual harassment from their male superiors.  Catherine manages to turn the tables on her unwelcome admirers, offering sex in exchange for promotion.  Her friend, Françoise, is initially reluctant to play the same game – particularly as she believes she has found her ideal man.  When her new boyfriend betrays her, Françoise decides to play Catherine’s game after all – and manages to get far further than her friend…

A run-of-the-mill French comedy – intended mainly for home consumption than a sophisticated foreign audience – Promotion canapé takes a wry (some would say facetious) view of sexual harassment in the work place.  The film may have been fresh and funny when it was released but today its cheeky assault on political correctness looks merely like an exercise in very bad taste.  Even in France, jokes about sexual harassment are no longer regarded as funny and the idea that you can get promoted by sleeping with your employer is so out-dated that it has become a tired cliché.  Despite all this, the film still has some entertainment value, and features some big names in mainstream French cinema, including Claude Rich and Thierry Lhermitte.

© James Travers 2004

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