Fifth feature film directed by Valérie Lemercier, “Marie-Francine” draws its story from a personal, particularly funny anecdote. And quite unusual.
Marie-Francine: a new comedy by Valérie Lemercier
Before Marie-Francine in 2017, Valérie Lemercier had already distinguished herself four times as a director. His third feature film entitled Royal palace had, moreover, met with wide critical and commercial success. Used to hilarious bourgeois roles (who revealed it in 1993 with Visitors), she therefore reconnects with her fundamentals through her new comedy. Also present in front of the camera, she collaborates in the distribution with Patrick Timsit, Hélène Vincent, Philippe Laudenbach and Denis Podalydès.
Marie-Francine follows a fiftieth birthday of the same name who is forced to return to live with his parents, after her husband left her and was fired from her job. The latter will encourage him to run a small cigarette store that they own. There, she will then meet Miguel, who is in a similar situation to her.
Note that once again, French comedy proves that she loves situations where adult and elderly characters still live with their parents. This has been seen in particular with Tanguy and Back to my mother.
An inspiration from the Orient
Before the movie is called Marie-Francine, he has known other titles. In fact, Valérie Lemercier initially thought of calling her “Marie-Francine, is it at that age that you come back?”. Then it was around “Le Bol de Marie-Francine” which underlined how lucky she was. Ultimately, the simple first name of the character was sufficient as the title.
Regarding the origin of the title, it comes from a friend of Valérie Lemercier who is called Marie-Francine. One day, the latter told her about her Vietnamese cleaning lady who lived in the same building as her, and who had given birth to a newborn baby. that she had also called Marie-Francine! From this anecdote, the director-screenwriter-actress decided to write a film about a 50-year-old woman who would be called after her friend, and who would be forced to return to live with her parents.
