CONVERSATION WITH MY GARDENER (12A)

DIALOGUE AVEC MON JARDINIER

Director Jean Becker  I  2007 I 110 mn

Cast Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Fanny Cottençon, Alexia Barlier

A successful, fifty-something Parisian artist goes back to his roots and returns to provincial France and his childhood home. He has neither the energy nor the talent to keep up the sprawling land around the house, and takes out a small ad to find some local help. Completely by chance, the first applicant – who turns out to be the right one – is an old school friend whom the painter hasn’t seen since he was a kid. He becomes the gardener. As they spend time in each other’s company, the painter builds up an impressionist’s canvas of a man who first intrigues and then amazes him by his honest and simple view of the world. The gardener’s life has been punctuated by a series of unremarkable events. He enjoys modest happiness, and there’s no bitterness or jealousy for the gardener. And his heroes are always ordinary people.