December 6th at 4:00pm and 7:0pm
A seemingly simple taxi ride across Paris evolves into a profound meditation on the realities of the driver, whose personal life is in shambles, and his fare, an elderly woman whose warmth belies her shocking past. (In French)
REVIEW: The little gem of a movie set inside a Paris taxi
Line Renaud is a much-loved French singer and actor whose life spans most of the last century. Casting her in a leading role at 93 must have posed some challenges, but Driving Madeleine is constructed to fit around her, rather than the other way around. She sits in the back of a taxi for most of it, with Dany Boon – himself a big star – driving her around Paris.
The format is so simple, but so right. Two strangers, one day, all they do is talk, with occasional stops for a sandwich or ice cream. Both lives are changed. Less obviously, this is an encounter between old Paris and new Paris, and the way women’s lives have changed.
Charles (Boon) is offered a ‘plum fare’ by the dispatcher. Charles is middle-aged and in debt, which makes him even grumpier than the average Paris cabbie. He crosses the city to a house in a leafy suburb where no-one answers. He blasts the horn, and Madeleine (Renaud) calls from the other side of the road, telling him she’s not deaf. She looks sadly at the shuttered house, suggesting that this may have been her family home – a long time ago.
She asks Charles to take her to the other side of Paris. At this stage, he is frustrated with the old biddy, but he needs the extra money. Fairly soon, she asks him to visit more places off their route. This trip has a significance we do not yet understand.
