7 ans de mariage (2003)
Directed by Didier Bourdon

Film Review

For his fifth feature as a director, Didier Bourdon goes it alone, parting company with Pascal Légitimus and Bernard Campan, with whom he formed one of France's most popular comedy troupes, Les Inconnus. Together, this threesome had delivered a series of successful film comedies, notably Les Trois frères (1995), but now Bourdon strikes out alone, with no one but Catherine Frot to help him out in his first solo venture. 7 ans de mariage is every bit as zany as Bourdon's previous directorial offerings but Frot gives it an added touch of class and the film is all the funnier because it is grounded in reality, presenting a situation familiar to many married couples who have started to suffer from the seven year itch.

It may not be as sophisticated as Billy Wilder's famous film, but Bourdon's penchant for over-the-top humour combined with Frot's flair for true-to-life comedy make a perfect match, so whilst the film is funny (hilariously so in a few scenes), it also never loses sight of the reality on which it is based - married couples beginning to lose the appetite for conjugal life. The film's popular appeal is reflected in its success at the box office - it attracted an audience of 1.6 million in France, making it the fifth most popular French comedy of 2003 (admittedly a modest result when compared with the 6.2 million achieved by the year's biggest success, Taxi 3). It is almost worth the price of the cinema ticket just to watch Jacques Weber's turn as a sex therapist and to see Catherine Frot hamming it up in a leopard-skin costume.

Film Synopsis

Alain is concerned that, after seven years of conjugal life, the spark has suddenly gone out of his marriage.  His wife Audrey, a reserved bank employee, appears to be too preoccupied with her work and their daughter Camille to have any time for him.  To make up for the deficit in his love life, Alain resorts to cheap pornography but he becomes increasingly worried that his marriage may be heading for the rocks.  In the end, he decides to consult a sex therapist, Claude, who offers him some helpful advice on how he may rekindle his wife's interest in him.  The advice seems to work.  After just a few visits to sex shops and nightclubs, Audrey becomes a changed woman and can hardly wait to get her husband into bed.  As Audrey's sex drive goes into overload, Alain begins to wonder if he may have bitten off more than he can chew...