Special Delivery

Colour, 35 mm
France, 2002, 99 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

It all started with a telephone call. A former acquaintance, now a successful orchestral conductor, suddenly calls Catherine, an event which worries her husband Raphael. Moreover, he quite impulsively sends her a bouquet. Others get mixed up in the story: Catherine’s neighbours, a man whom Catherine met on the street, the messenger delivering the bouquet, and Raphael’s odd colleague Edith: unable to cope with the reality of life, she selects Kant as her ally and advisor. As is usual in director Labrune’s films, a rather banal event – this time a phone call – evokes small quarrels and misunderstandings between partners. This amusing and incredibly fresh work is in the spirit of the best tradition of French conversational comedies, a penetrating look at everyday problems between men and women. This film forms the second part of a trilogy started by Ça ira mieux demain. The director´s statement: "It´s life looked upon as a series of slip-ups that the characters attempt to control without always managing it."

About the director

Jeanne Labrune (b. 1950, Berry Bouy, Cher, France) debuted in features in 1988 with Sand and Blood (De sable et de sang). Her other titles include Sans un cri (1992) and Beware of My Love (Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi, 1998). Two years later she remade the film as a contemporary comedy, Ça ira mieux demain, starring Nathalie Baye, Jeanne Balibar and Jean-Pierre Darroussin. The movie was screened at the 2001 Namur Francophone IFF. Her latest film, Special Delivery (C’est le bouquet!), was shown at the same festival, cast once again with top French actors: Sandrine Kiberlain, Dominique Blanc, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Jean-Claude Brialy. In 1989 Labrune founded Art-Light Productions, and there she produced her last four movies. Selected filmography: La Part de l’autre (1985), De sable et de sang (1988), Sans un cri (1991), Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi (1998), Ça ira mieux demain (2000), Special Delivery (2002).