Paul Allaer "In the Courtyard" (2014 release from France; 0riginal title "Dans La Cour"; 97 min.) brings the story of Antoine. As the movie opens, we see Antoine, who is a singer in a rock band, refusing to go on stage due to lack of sleep or some such. By happenstance, Antoine literally stumbles onto a better gig: being the concierge of an old apartment building in the heard of Paris. Mathilde, played by Catherine Deneuve, and her husband are one of the tenants. To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first and foremost, I picked up this movie without knowing anything about it other than it stars Catherine Deneuve, and that's a good enough basis for me. I was right, Deneuve plays Mathilde, a seemingly super-active woman who as the movie unfolds suffers from more than just that. It is another brilliant performance from Deneuve, who scored her 12th (!) Cezar-nomination (France's equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Actress for this role (she did not win). We get to many of the building's other characters, each with their own quirks and problems. The movie almost has the feeling of being a filmed stage play, as pretty much all of the movie unfolds with the building and on its courtyard. Beware: this movie is labeled as a comedy-drama, but let's be clear: there isn't much comedy, let alone laugh-out-loud moments. Rather, this movie is a study of characters, and leaves a bittersweet aftertaste, slightly more bitter than sweet.I recently picked up this movie at the foreign movie section of my local library. "In the Courtyard" certainly isn't bad, but lacks some tension and a better mix of scenery. That said, if you are a fan of foreign movies, I'd encourage you to check this out. Chances are that you will be watching in amazement, as I was, of Catherine Deneuve's performance.

ecce-platypus There are definitely some references, like crack in the wall, but the crack thing goes in a completely different direction. In Repulsion, Deneuve is over the top, simulacra of madness, here, she's a regular patient, no wild insanity thing, it's pretty ordinary, by the book. But everyone in the movie is a bit crazy, in some dark comedy kind of way. Little neighbourhood is very well depicted. Ending is, however, not very good, lost points for me. Something is missing there. But still, a nice movie. Good acting, interesting characters, some weird scenes, there's a lot of cute stuff, but that ending is haunting me. Too weak, to dry, too short, no real closure. Why?

writers_reign ... but it was written in French.Pierre Salvadori is usually a good bet to send you home cocooned in a warm glow. Like Francis Veber he likes to throw two disparate people together and watch what happens but whereas Veber does this almost exclusively with males Salvadori, as often as not, will mix the genders. Here he locks onto two people who stumble upon a mid-life crisis at roughly the same time but miles apart. Antoine is a rock musician who walks away from his band in mid-tour and immediately pre-gig. Not really equipped for any other line of work he tries his hand as a janitor and as luck would have it his immediate superior, Mathilde, is having a crisis of her own, albeit she has support in the shape of a husband. No one is surprised when the two bond and grow close although stopping well short of romance. A lot of the fun are the fruitcakes who people the building and/or neighbourhood. It's very easy to take and well acted by all hands. Recommended.

JvH48 I saw this film at the Berlinale film festival 2014. It was the international premiere in a venue with more than 1,500 booked seats, in presence of film makers and main actors. There was no Q&A afterwards.I'm not sure why I liked this one much more than "A Long Way Down" (Chaumeil, 2014) that I saw earlier in the same week, in spite of many traits they have in common. Both films are mere entertainment, casting well known actors which will attract many viewers regardless of its contents, neither has an express intention to carry a message or a morale, both will trigger several laughs, and have more than sufficient unexpected turns of events. I assume that the courtyard film had a definite advantage in its diversity and strangeness of the main characters living in the large house, in fact in a micro cosmos, yet not too far fetched and not too artificial, all that working to keep us interested throughout its running time. It has no useful purpose to summarize the plot here. The story line is very easy to follow, the characters are properly introduced and one gets ample chance to get to know them better.