I'd seen a preview of Copocabana and was aware that Huppert and her on screen daughter were mother and daughter in real life... although this is very hard to pick.
Babou (Huppert) is a free spirit, probably once a hippie, arty, restless, a real free spirit. The complete opposite of your middle class reviewer and indeed her on screen daughter and most of the other characters in the film
I wouldn't call Copocabana so much a comedy as a very interesting study of those us married to jobs, relationships and being settled. Versus people like Babou who blow like the wind from place to place.
When her daughter announces she's going to get married and to save her mother the cost of paying for part of the wedding (and to save the daughter the embarrassment of her mother being there), her daughter tells her in laws her mother is in Brazil and won't be back to attend the wedding.
Hearing this Babou is hurt. One of her men friends (plutonic as it turns out) tells her about a job selling timeshares in Ostende, Belgium. So to prove to her daughter she can hold down a job & be responsible, Babou applies for and gets this job.
Arriving at Ostende we find a seafront high rise building in winter, in the off season with Babou and 3 or 4 others recruited to solicit potential buyers on the streets. Being winter and being winter in Belgium it's all a bit bleak and depressing. Aren't most movies set in Belgium slightly bleak? Betty Blue, Rosetta come to mind.
Slowly though we see Babou make one or two friends. A party of people dining out invite Babou to join her at their table and here she meets Bart played by Jurgen Delnaet who has similar red hair to Huppert but must be 10 or 15 years younger. I really liked Bart whose quite keen on Babou. But once again we see the contrast how she lives from day to day, whereas he works on the wharves unloading boats and has more sense of work and routine.
This is a film worth seeing and persevering with. Babou is a kind soul, we see her become a success and then... I won't spoil the ending.
Is it that work, long hours, relationships, living in the one house for many years makes us dull? What are the pluses and minuses compared to being a free spirit like Babou? You'll have to make your own mind up.
One things for sure I left the cinema thinking maybe there is more to life than work and maybe many of us need to be more spontaneous. Or at least have a bucket list of things to do, maybe draw these out of a hat. I've only personally known a few free spirits, restless souls like Babou. One girl who father was in the army and probably moved 25 times in 20 years. Another family of 5 where the father was a captain in the army and moved all the time. And another long lost friend, poet Adrian Rawlins who was an Australian equivalent of Babou, god rest his soul.
A thought provoking and in the end inspirational movie.
Babou (Huppert) is a free spirit, probably once a hippie, arty, restless, a real free spirit. The complete opposite of your middle class reviewer and indeed her on screen daughter and most of the other characters in the film
I wouldn't call Copocabana so much a comedy as a very interesting study of those us married to jobs, relationships and being settled. Versus people like Babou who blow like the wind from place to place.
When her daughter announces she's going to get married and to save her mother the cost of paying for part of the wedding (and to save the daughter the embarrassment of her mother being there), her daughter tells her in laws her mother is in Brazil and won't be back to attend the wedding.
Hearing this Babou is hurt. One of her men friends (plutonic as it turns out) tells her about a job selling timeshares in Ostende, Belgium. So to prove to her daughter she can hold down a job & be responsible, Babou applies for and gets this job.
Arriving at Ostende we find a seafront high rise building in winter, in the off season with Babou and 3 or 4 others recruited to solicit potential buyers on the streets. Being winter and being winter in Belgium it's all a bit bleak and depressing. Aren't most movies set in Belgium slightly bleak? Betty Blue, Rosetta come to mind.
Slowly though we see Babou make one or two friends. A party of people dining out invite Babou to join her at their table and here she meets Bart played by Jurgen Delnaet who has similar red hair to Huppert but must be 10 or 15 years younger. I really liked Bart whose quite keen on Babou. But once again we see the contrast how she lives from day to day, whereas he works on the wharves unloading boats and has more sense of work and routine.
This is a film worth seeing and persevering with. Babou is a kind soul, we see her become a success and then... I won't spoil the ending.
Is it that work, long hours, relationships, living in the one house for many years makes us dull? What are the pluses and minuses compared to being a free spirit like Babou? You'll have to make your own mind up.
One things for sure I left the cinema thinking maybe there is more to life than work and maybe many of us need to be more spontaneous. Or at least have a bucket list of things to do, maybe draw these out of a hat. I've only personally known a few free spirits, restless souls like Babou. One girl who father was in the army and probably moved 25 times in 20 years. Another family of 5 where the father was a captain in the army and moved all the time. And another long lost friend, poet Adrian Rawlins who was an Australian equivalent of Babou, god rest his soul.
A thought provoking and in the end inspirational movie.