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À la petite semaine (2003 )

Jacques is coming home after a long stretch behind bars. The boys are waiting, especially hi longtime friend Francis and new kid on the block Didier. They have a job lined up. but Jacques wants out of the life, Francis would rather be on the stage and wannabe mobster Didier has loser written all over him. Looks like someone's heading for a fall. Written by Aline

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Sam Karmann's 2003 vintage as a director

Basically a stage actor and a close friend of the winning team Jean Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, Sam Karmann belatedly tried his hand at directing but the few works he left shouldn't be dismissed at all. "Kennedy et Moi" (1999) was the French "American Beauty" and an ideal cure for its director who had a breakdown prior to shoot it. Although it belongs to another cinematographic genre, "A la Petite Semaine" is every bit as good as its predecessor.

From a classy starting point, Karmann drew a respectable piece of work. Jacques (Gérard Lanvin) is released from prison and has decided to go straight. But his friend Francis (Jacques Gamblin), an actor who lives with his mother and an impulsive young man Didier (Clovis Cornillac) prepares a job. Jacques tries to make them renounce to their affair, it's no use. However, tangled up in their shady affairs, the two casual thieves will soon be caught in a downward spiral and Jacques might have a solution to save them.

Karmann's film encapsulates two genres and swings between them with fluidity: detective film and social comedy. By the use of key scenery (cafes), sharp dialogs and the type of story employed, his credentials are derived from José Giovanni, Jacques Becker and Michel Audiard. So he knows his classics and he's supported by his great threesome of actors even if I must say that I'm not a fan of Gamblin and Lanvin. The rest of the cast doesn't lie fallow either. The delineation of each secondary character is precise and has its importance in the representation of this rather dull but not despondent everyday life.

"A La Petite Semaine" is a throwback to good old popular cinema. How refreshing!

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