My Afternoons with Margueritte

Released Sep 16, 2011

1h 22m

Drama

List

85%

Tomatometer

62 Reviews

79%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

In a film based on Marie-Sabine Roger's book, Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus) is a 95-year-old woman whose greatest joy in life is a good book. So the residents of her rural French village are stunned when she strikes up a conversation with the sweet German oaf Germain (Gérard Depardieu), who is virtually illiterate. But, as their odd friendship blossoms, Margueritte shares her passion with Germain, teaching him as she reads aloud. And when her eyes begin to fail, Germain returns the favor.

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Critics Consensus

It's sentimental and treacly, but that's not enough to prevent My Afternoons with Margueritte from being truly affecting.

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Austin Chronicle

Rated: 3/5

Nov 5, 2011

Full Review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

There's no reason this cliché-ridden French drama should work, but it does, and there's the beauty of it.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 4, 2011

Full Review

Tom Long

Detroit News

A sweet puff of a film, My Afternoons With Margueritte is as disarming as it is absurd.

Rated: B

Oct 14, 2011

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

The scenes between Germain and Margueritte are so strong that other sequences almost feel like filler.

Rated: 2.5/4

May 6, 2022

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Gerard Depardieu remains one of the world's best living actors.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 17, 2020

Full Review

Laura Hiros

Rincón de cine

A love story, but not the classic head-over-heels story where it's Juliet's destiny to meet her Romeo and live out a tragic situation that ends in tears. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 3/5

Mar 23, 2018

Full Review

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Audience Member

Sweet and remarkable

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Everyone is nice but there is the bad husband (called Youssef) the bad mother ( Spanish who dances the flamanco) the bad nephew (Belgian with the required accent) I do not see how the precision of their origins brings what so ever in the scenario. Just the small reflexes of xenophobia ordinary to the frankfurters, sausage-baguette style Amelie Poulains french frogs . Nauseous.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Serge L

Film pour la télé et pour les gens agés, pas de doute. Amusant parallèle de la vie d'enfant du héro avec sa vie courante et comment il déconstruit la manière gênante de son élevage, si je puis dire. C'est assez comique par occasion même si on devine ce qui va se produire ou dire. Deviner juste est en fait un amusement en soi.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/01/17

Full Review

Audience Member

Film pour la télé et pour les gens agés, pas de doute. Amusant parallèle de la vie d'enfant du héro avec sa vie courante et comment il déconstruit la manière gênante de son élevage, si je puis dire. C'est assez comique par occasion même si on devine ce qui va se produire ou dire. Deviner juste est en fait un amusement en soi.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enjoyable drama where unlikely feel-good connections are made.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Quite often films like this can be seen as sickly and rather a bit much for those who want a more realistic plot as well. With this you can get that feeling of emotion that can feel a little showy, kind of like "look here we are trying so hard to make you feel all fuzzy", I'm not saying that is all together a bad thing but I do feel movies like that can get a little too seen before sometimes. The movie has a small cast in terms of main characters but that makes it much more personal and at times you can kind of connect to these French townsfolk and the entire goings on that happen. The plot is about a man named Germain who is a little on the less intelligent side but is a sweet man in ways and shows it in this film most whilst feeding his beloved pigeons in the park. Germain comes across an old lady who also feeds the pigeons and strikes up a nice little friendship where both tell each other of their lives and read to each other as well. Of course not all the plot is set in the park and between these two characters, Germain also has to contend with his less than loving mother and friends who often ridicule him for his less than smart remarks. I felt the story does go along nicely, yet again the sickly parts can clog up part of this small and light movie but in the end it isn't long enough to make me care about much of the more cheesy moments. Gerard Depardieu is Germain and he does a good job, he makes him exactly what he is meant to be, not too intelligent but caring, can get a little angry but at the same time wants to learn and better himself too. It is not only Depardieu who is good, Gisele Casadesus as the old lady and the name in the movie Margueritte is in fine form, she is acting here way into her 90's and really gives this her all and creates a likeable character and a little lady who maybe could remind many of us of grandmas. I liked most of the cast as well but I also like that the main two are given a lot of time together, the movie never tries to make too much small talk with minor characters and so I felt it flows well for such a short film. Jean Becker directs and does a nice job; I felt he captured the right tone of the town used and gets that French film kind of spirit really going. Becker co-writes as well and the script is really where a lot of the movie can feel overly sweet, the ending leaves a nice taste but boy just before that it made me think it was going to be a horrendous ending and too predictable, would have ruined the movie but luckily the guys behind this get it right. I must also mention the wonderful score which is not used a lot but when it is it's lovely and really brings out the best of the certain scenes involved. With this you can get that kind of award bait movie that really tries to either pull at the heart strings or make you laugh or sometimes both and this movie feels very much like that. I will say though that it is recommendable, it is layered in typical kind of plot but still wraps the whole thing up nicely and adds a nice little bow to this more than OK movie. Don't expect something amazing, this is good but far from sublime, still shows though the genuine skill that French cinema can produce and also that Depardieu is still going strongly as an actor.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

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Jean Becker

Director

Gérard Depardieu

Germain Chazes

Gisèle Casadesus

Margueritte

Maurane

Francine

Patrick Bouchitey

Landremont

Jean-François Stévenin

Jojo

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Synopsis

In a film based on Marie-Sabine Roger's book, Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus) is a 95-year-old woman whose greatest joy in life is a good book. So the residents of her rural French village are stunned when she strikes up a conversation with the sweet German oaf Germain (Gérard Depardieu), who is virtually illiterate. But, as their odd friendship blossoms, Margueritte shares her passion with Germain, teaching him as she reads aloud. And when her eyes begin to fail, Germain returns the favor.

Director: Jean Becker
Screenwriter: Jean Becker, Jean-Loup Dabadie, Jean-Loup Dabadie, Jean Becker
Distributor: Cohen Media Group
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 16, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 22, 2016
Runtime: 1h 22m

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