Juliette is in a real pickle: the school where she taught was destroyed by fire, and her single class must now be dispersed across the department. But she has an unexpected idea: move her students into the village retirement home while the work is being done. Between the unruly children and the endearing boarders, cohabitation promises to be eventful... and yet, this experience will turn everyone's life upside down.
A curate's egg ; although based on a true story, the movie sometimes look ponderous nay crude: the bra, the viagra ,and the copulating rabbits are sheer bad taste,not even funny ; in the night everybody seems to have a rendez-vous in this home for retired people !; History seems the only subject taught in Miss Pol'sclass ;besides ,her pupils seem too young to study WW2;it's actually a pretext to make the elders intervene ; the teacher /home manager relationship ,you'll guess from the very start how it will end .
Now for the good : Miss Pol is credible as a determined teacher and gorgeous ; it's a pleasure to see Mr Eddy Mitchell ,pop singer and American cinema connoisseur ,though his part is too small; the meeting between the young and the old is sometimes convincing , particularly the fete when they all dance together ; the old lady's little trip to a fairground, where she finds back,for the last time alas ,the marvelous joys of her childhood ,the sweets and the merry-go-rounds,goes straight to the heart. .
And the film does not pass over in silence the social issues: the country schools closure;the admirable task of the shortstaffed nurses and their aides,often exhausted .The children facing an old person's death is treated with modesty and
emotion,without falling into tear-jerker territory.
And last but no least ,unlike 95% of the French films ,Miss Boudre uses FRENCH songs : Michèle Torr's "emmène moi danser ce soir' and Edith Piaf 's "à quoi ça sert l'amour?" ;it's this latter chanson which saves the couple-at-odds-who-of-course-will -marry -and- live-happily- ever -after cliché .
...the love you take is equal to the love you make.
