TEA WITH MADAME CLOS

Ma's View:

I LOVED this movie!!!  It's actually a documentary by Jane Oehr which traces the last 4 years in the life of an old lady in the village of Lauzert in SW France.  Madame Clos is 96 when we first meet her and still making her daily trip for necessities of life down the steep hill to the village centre.  Jane Oehr is privileged, as are we, to be given an intimate glimpse of French culture through the simple daily doings of this darling old lady - her ritual trip to the bakery, her "bonne soupe", the postman's visit, the schoolkids playing outside her window and sidling up for the special Vichy mints she keeps on hand for them.  Her humour and joyful acceptance of her lot in life come from another era where people's needs were simpler or where they better understood themselves and what really mattered in this world.

Each year we go back to find her a little bit older and feebler but still alert and managing her life on her own terms.  How long can this go on?  We have grown to care for her and hope she makes it to 100.  It is a credit to the skill Jane Oehr that she has in no way been intrusive into the life of her subject but has allowed Madame Clos reach out to us her audience and ensnare our hearts just as she did those around her.

My score:  8.5/10

Pepe's View:

This is a great movie which, although directed by an Australian, is a classic French movie - lovingly revealing of both the French people and the French culture.  Madame Clos is a beautiful old lady already 96 years old  when we meet her and the movie could be a recipe for how to live your life graciously and simply savouring all the little things that many of us don't seem to have the time for.
Jane Oehr skillfully introduced us to Madame Clos in stages and by the end of the movie we felt we had known her all her life instead of the 90 minutes we were in the theatre.  We follow Madame Clos as she goes about her simple daily tasks and we are made aware, usually with the help of a slightly irritating voice over, that this life and all our lives are inexorably moving towards death.   We are encouraged to expect this old lady's death but when we are informed that her simple life is over, it is still a shock and we leave the theatre filled with a sadness and a deep sense of loss - both for the wonderful old lady and for a way of life that sadly is also coming to an end.

My Score:  9/10