02/10/2013 - 24 hours in the lives of several mothers in their forties in an affluent neighbourhood. A sharp portrait signed Isabelle Czajka and a brilliant Emmanuelle Devos

"In the morning, I am worried. I think about the day ahead, everything I need to do.” We are in a nifty residential neighbourhood of the Parisian suburbs, where each comfortable large house resembles its neighbour, where each mother takes the same daily route to the school, shopping centre and park, where each woman tries not to be weighed down by the heaviness of Domestic Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. By giving this title to her film, which is a free adaptation of the novel Arlington Park by British author of Canadian origin Rachel Cusk, Isabelle Czajka gives us a heads up. Because the word “domestic” suggests both a “home” and “servitude”. And the director indeed makes no concessions in this incisive and clearly feminist work in which male characters are poorly depicted in what some spectators could judge as caricatured roles (absent men, childlike, overwhelmed and stupid, but nevertheless affectionate...), while female spectators will probably see an only slightly deformed vision of reality.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter, since this feature focuses on housewives and their place in our modern society and depicts a very realistic portrait through four protagonists: Juliette (Emmanuelle Devos), Betty (Julie Ferrier), Marianne (Natacha Régnier) and Inès (Helena Noguerra). Four mothers who struggle with their children’s daily schedules, household chores (shopping and meals, washing machines, etc.) and the organisation of the social family life (dinner parties, baby-sitters) whilst trying to keep their own personal space (finding a job, animating neighbourhood activities, going shopping with friends...). As a whole, of course, happiness isn’t what transpires despite the “idyllic” setting, but the director does not either exaggerate the suffering of this gilded cage by balancing it out with images of struggling teenagers from a poorer neighbourhood.

Subtly dealing with a multitude of themes (education of the children, misogyny, the power of consumption, the place of women in the work place...), Domestic Life hits the spot in many ways. An edifying and quite ruthless account of this grey zone in which modern women are kept (or sometimes stay in voluntarily), the film gives pride of place to its actresses, especially Emmanuelle Devos. The elegant directing and the editing which skilfully blends in the stories over 24 hours sufficiently lighten the intrigue so that it becomes much more than an interesting invitation to reflexion. After The Year After [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Leopard for Best First Film in Locarno in 2006) and Living On Love Alone [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (two nominations for the César 2011 for Best Male and Female Newcomers), Domestic Life (produced by Agat Films, distributed in France by Ad Vitam and sold internationally by Films Distribution)confirms that Isabelle Czajka succeeds in being (with no formalist or intellectualist drifts) a cinematographic sociologist and that her films could in the future be looked at like a close analysis of our contemporary society.

(Translated from French)