Bruno Podalydès’ latest film is a delightful chronicle of our contemporary world through the life of a small real estate agency. This comedy is served by a cast with small onions and a rhythmic staging. In theaters June 7.
On one side is an old 19th century house, which is quite dilapidated but full of charm, on the other is a brand new, soulless apartment in the “golden square of Bougival”. Catherine (Karine Viard) and Oracio (Bruno Podalydès) “advisors” of the agency Wahou! deploy their talents and tricks to provoke the “coup de coeur” of potential buyers, while sparing the susceptibility of sellers…
A “Wow!”the opening of a cupboard or a phone call to the husband are all warning signs of a happy conclusion to the visit… Quite an art that the two advisers practice with more or less conviction and that Oracio, very learned, tries to instill in Jim (Victor Lefebvre)a young intern full of zeal…
The art of the cinematic sketch
We find with this new film the touch of Bruno Podalydès and his art of cinematographic sketching. The world of real estate is here a pretext to cast a tender and acid eye on its contemporaries, each new visit the opportunity to open a door on lives: a troupe of poorly tuned musicians led by Josépha (Agnès Jaoui) , a woman full of fantasy decked out with a psychorigid husband (Isabelle Candelier and Patrick Ligardes), small couples of neat lovers, a nurse in the throes of depression, a mute client…
The director plays with contrasts and symmetries. Contrast between the two properties put up for sale, slipping here and there close-ups of the sets to paint the portrait of two opposite sets: on one side an old house bearing the marks of time, and of history, with its cracks, its faded colors, the majesty of its century-old sequoia, or even the fantasy of Sylvette and Simon (Sabine Azéma, and Eddy Mitchell, extra as a grumpy old owner), the owner couple in no hurry to sell.
On the other, the coldness of clean surfaces, the flawless liveliness of a canary wall, the murmur of a rolling shutter motor, the reassuring symmetry of a double basin… Symmetry found in the ballet of a duo of helmeted real estate sharks, or a young couple in love -same folding bike, same clothes- whose gestures, as in a choreography, agree to perfection.
“Exceptional property”
“Exceptional product”, off-market, “we are starting with substantial volumes”, “pool area”… In a direct production, Bruno Podalydès stages in tasty dialogues the lexical field characteristic of this profession, whose terms often hide misery and wolves. But behind the ready-made formulas, singular worlds, slices of life are revealed between the walls.
Over the course of the visits, which follow one another like small theatrical scenes playing out to the sound of piano notes, the most intimate feelings of each other, customers as agents, are expressed: loneliness, love, the ambitions, the complexes, the “social embarrassment”the frustrations, the feeling of abandonment…
Shot in four weeks, Wow! is constructed like a series of scketches, à la Raymond Queneau, with a somewhat rushed ending. Magnificently served by a “family” of actors and actresses loyal to the director, this hilarious light-hearted comedy shows with finesse and well-balanced humor the weight of the emotional charge that often accompanies the purchase or sale of a ” house”, in the sense of “home”. “We all have the right to be an owner, but does happiness go through that?”wonders Catherine, half-opening a broader reflection on our need for property.
The sheet
Gender : comedy
Director: Bruno Podalydes
Actors : Karin Viard, Bruno Podalydes, Sabine Azema
Country : France
Duration : 1 hour
Exit : June 7
Distributer : UGC Distribution
Synopsis : Catherine and Oracio are real estate advisers and visit two properties one after the other: a large bourgeois house “swimming pool, view of the RER”, and a small modern apartment located in the heart of Bougival’s golden triangle. Despite agitated visits, they do not lose sight of their objective: to make potential buyers fall in love, the real, the only thing that will make them forget all the flaws. The one that will make them say “Wow! »