Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu are enough to excite any genuine film fan, and with Potiche you get them both together. Another film that just hit the Glasgow Film Festival is the story of a housewife who is very much viewed as a trophy wife to her successful business running husband that has to take over the business one day when he suffers a heart attack and the roles are very much reversed.

The film is based on a play by Pierre Barillet who also wrote the screenplay that François Ozon directs, and from the accounts I've heard at the GFF the film is pretty good fun and a great role for Deneuve.

Now there's an English subtitled trailer for Potiche online and it does look rather good, here's the blurb:

Set in 1977 in a provincial French town, POTICHE is a free adaptation of the 1970s eponymous hit comic play. Catherine Deneuve is Suzanne Pujol, a submissive, housebound 'trophy housewife' (or "potiche,") who steps in to manage her wealthy and tyrannical husband (Fabrice Lucchini)'s umbrella factory after the workers go on strike and take him hostage.

To everyone's surprise, Suzanne proves herself a competent and assertive woman of action. But when her husband returns from a restful cruise in top form, things get complicated.

Gérard Depardieu plays a former union leader and Suzanne's ex-beau who still holds a flame for her. Acclaimed writer-director Francois Ozon ("Swimming Pool," "Under the Sand," "Time to Leave,") who had previously directed Ms. Deneuve in "8 Women," twists the original play on its head to create his own satirical and hilarious take on the war between the sexes and classes.

I hate Apple Trailer's blurbs, they don't insert paragraphs, there are quotes everywhere, at least they don't capitalise every single letter in film titles. Anyway...

Potiche does look like a lot of fun, and Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu look set to bring the story to life with their chemistry and fantastic performances. Why not give it a go?

You can see the trailer over at Apple Trailers in Quicktime high definition and with English subtitles. There's also a French trailer below with a lot more footage, and if you can understand French, a lot more dialogue.