La Vieille Fille

The protagonist of The Old Maid belongs to the large group of introverts who are exhausted by loud and numerous company and who value peace, stability, and safety above all. Miss Muriel hides her emotional vulnerability behind the mask of a cool and distant woman. She cannot express her rich inner world and her behavior is shy and reserved. Gabriel, on the other hand, represents the type of man we call an old bachelor. He loves his comfort and his rituals, and there is no indication that he wants to change the established functioning regime. However, a car malfunction forces the travelers to change their plans. After a few days when circumstances force these seemingly different characters to interact and communicate with each other, we now have enough for what we call love at second sight to emerge. The Old Maid is a rather inconspicuous, intimate film with a calm storytelling pace. We usually associate French romantic films with charm and elegance, but here they are replaced by cute clumsiness, misunderstandings, and bad luck. Instead of the carefree madness so popular in the romantic genre, the director here asserts distance and irony, enhanced by the civilian acting of both major stars of the French film screen. Overall impression: 75%. (05/11/2015)