# Potiche
**Potiche** is a 2010 French-Belgian comedy film directed by [François Ozon](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-ozon), adapted from the 1980 stage play of the same name by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy. It stars [Catherine Deneuve](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-deneuve) as Suzanne Pujol, a submissive [trophy wife](https://www.edgepedia.org/trophy-wife) in the French provincial bourgeoisie of 1977 who takes over her husband's umbrella factory during a strike and proves a capable leader. The film competed at the 67th Venice International Film Festival and was released in France on 10 November 2010.[1](https://www.unifrance.org/film/30941/potiche) • [2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenwriter | François Ozon, freely adapted from the play by Barillet and Grédy[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552) |
| Cast | Catherine Deneuve (Suzanne Pujol), Gérard Depardieu (Maurice Babin), Fabrice Luchini (Robert Pujol), Karin Viard (Nadège), Judith Godrèche (Joëlle), Jérémie Renier (Laurent)[3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/) |
| Setting | Sainte-Gudule, in the Nord department of France, in 1977[4](https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/110207-000-A/?trailer=true) |
| Release | France and Belgium 10 November 2010; Italy 5 November 2010; Germany 24 March 2011; UK 17 June 2011[1](https://www.unifrance.org/film/30941/potiche) • [3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/) |
| Technical | 103 minutes, 35 mm color, 1.85 aspect ratio, Dolby SRD; visa number 124.669 issued 27 September 2010[1](https://www.unifrance.org/film/30941/potiche) • [5](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/124669) |
| Festivals | In competition for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice Mostra (2010); official selection at Toronto 2010[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552) • [6](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/potiche-trophy-wife/) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Yorick Le Saux, music Philippe Rombi, editing Laure Gardette, production design Katia Wyszkop, costumes Pascaline Chavanne[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The action is set in 1977 in Sainte-Gudule, a small town in the Nord department. Suzanne Pujol, née Michonneau, is the submissive, housebound wife of the wealthy industrialist Robert Pujol, who runs his umbrella factory with an iron fist and is as tyrannical with his workers as with his mistress, his children, and the wife he treats as a potiche, a decorative ornament.[3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/) • [4](https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/110207-000-A/?trailer=true)
When the workers go on strike and take Robert hostage, Suzanne steps in to manage the factory in his place, the staff having disowned him. Robert, worn out and in poor health, leaves on a restful cruise, and Suzanne reveals herself, to general surprise, as a woman of decision and action. Aided by the communist deputy Maurice Babin, her former lover, she ends the strike, restarts the factory, and improves working conditions. Complications follow when Robert returns in top form.[3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/) • [7](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/146/181/46482/presse/potiche-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
## The title and the play
In French, a *potiche* is a vase or decorative object of little value and no practical use, placed on a shelf or mantel. The word also serves in everyday language as a derogatory term for a woman considered mere eye candy, or one living in her husband's shadow without an identity of her own; wives of politicians, and some female politicians themselves, have been called potiches, including Madame Chirac and, more recently at the time of release, [Ségolène Royal](https://www.edgepedia.org/segolene-royal).[7](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/146/181/46482/presse/potiche-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
The play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, a writing duo producing comedies together since 1949, was created in 1980. Barillet recalled that its starting point was a quip by Bernadette Chirac just after the Chiracs moved into the Hôtel de Ville in Paris: "Don't count on me to play the role of a potiche!" The play was still running when the French majority swung to the left in 1981, and the authors modified certain lines to allude to current events.[8](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2010/11/09/barillet-et-gredy-createurs-de-vaudevilles-depuis-1949_1437643_3476.html)
## Adaptation and production
Ozon said he had wanted for a long time to make a film about women's place in society and politics, and thought the play great material when he saw it about ten years before making the film, but it took him a long time to work out how to adapt and modernize it. He aimed for the tone and verve of screwball comedies without making a backward-looking film disconnected from reality. Two catalysts launched the project: meeting the producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer, who proposed a political film in the spirit of [Stephen Frears](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-frears)'s *The Queen*, and the 2007 French presidential election, during which he followed Ségolène Royal's campaign with interest.[9](https://emanuellevy.com/review/potiche-interview-with-francois-ozon-6/)
In a later interview he explained that the 2007 campaign, the first in France with a woman facing a man, brought a kind of mini male-chauvinist attack that suggested things had not changed so much since the 1970s. He went to Catherine Deneuve to ask whether she would be his potiche; she accepted, and he began the adaptation. He chose to set the film in the 1970s deliberately: a period of crisis, with an oil crisis, kidnappings of bosses, many strikes, and a Communist Party holding 20 percent in elections, which he saw as a way of talking about the France of his own day at a distance, through comedy.[10](https://cine-vue.com/2011/10/interview-francois-ozon-director-of-potiche.html?noamp=available)
Shooting took place in October 2009 in Belgium, with Mandarin Cinéma as production company.[11](https://www.screendaily.com/potiche/5006936.article) Production companies included Mandarin & Compagnie, FOZ, France 2 Cinéma, Mars Films, Wild Bunch, and Scope Pictures.[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552) • [12](https://julianwhiting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/potiche-study-guide-written-by-hc3a9lc3a8ne-beaugy-2010www-worldonlinecinema-com.pdf)
## Style and themes
The film is staged as a 1970s period comedy, with a soft-focus vintage aesthetic, a jaunty score, and deliberately familiar sitcom-like staging that one reviewer described as lending the piece a nostalgic, playful authenticity.[13](https://www.theweereview.com/review/potiche/) Critics noted its blend of farce with themes of gender politics and labor relations: Deneuve's Suzanne adopts a maternal, caring, pseudo-communist leadership style set against her tyrannical capitalist husband, and secondary storylines involving past romantic affairs and the possible paternity of her son Laurent complicate the image of the caring mother.[14](https://exclaim.ca/film/article/potiche_trophy_wife-directed_by_francois_ozon)
Ozon himself said he realized the film was feminist when he saw the response of many women spectators, adding that the film's success in France owed much to female audiences, who often decide which film a couple goes to see.[10](https://cine-vue.com/2011/10/interview-francois-ozon-director-of-potiche.html?noamp=available) The film has since been used in teaching alongside [Simone de Beauvoir](https://www.edgepedia.org/simone-de-beauvoir)'s *Le Deuxième Sexe* to connect the history of French women's rights with contemporary questions of equality.[15](https://assets.noviams.com/novi-file-uploads/aatf/pdfs_and_documents/Conference_Proceedings/TEACHING-FRENCH-WOMENS-RIGHTS-29a88602.pdf)
## Reception
The film premiered in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010 and was an official selection at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) the same year.[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552) • [6](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/potiche-trophy-wife/) It opened in Italy on 5 November 2010 and in France and Belgium on 10 November 2010, followed by releases in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain, Romania, and the United Kingdom through 2011.[3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/) Music Box Films released it in the United States on 25 March 2011 under the title *Potiche (Trophy Wife)*, rated R for some sexuality.[6](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/potiche-trophy-wife/)
[In Switzerland](https://www.edgepedia.org/in-switzerland) it sold 124,612 admissions as recorded by ProCinema, with 59,538 in German-speaking Switzerland, 62,916 in Suisse romande, and 2,158 in Ticino.[16](https://www.procinema.ch/de/statistics/filmdb/1007887.html) On AlloCiné it holds a spectator rating of 3.1 out of 5 from 6,924 votes, with reviewers praising its handling of misogyny and women's emancipation and its vintage recreation of 1977.[17](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-172873/critiques/spectateurs/recentes/) On JustWatch it carries a 6.4 rating from about 12,000 users.[18](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/potiche) Local titles include *Das Schmuckstück* in German and *Potiche - La bella statuina* in Italian.[16](https://www.procinema.ch/de/statistics/filmdb/1007887.html) • [2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552)
## References
1. [Potiche de François Ozon (2010), Unifrance](https://www.unifrance.org/film/30941/potiche)
2. [Scheda film Potiche, ASAC, La Biennale di Venezia](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/216552)
3. [Potiche, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/135354/rl/1/)
4. [Potiche, ARTE](https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/110207-000-A/?trailer=true)
5. [Visas et Classification, CNC, visa 124669](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/124669)
6. [Potiche (Trophy Wife), Music Box Films](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/potiche-trophy-wife/)
7. [Potiche press kit (English), Unifrance/Mandarin Cinéma](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/146/181/46482/presse/potiche-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
8. [Barillet et Grédy, créateurs de vaudevilles depuis 1949, Le Monde (9 November 2010)](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2010/11/09/barillet-et-gredy-createurs-de-vaudevilles-depuis-1949_1437643_3476.html)
9. [Potiche (2010): Interview with François Ozon, Emanuel Levy](https://emanuellevy.com/review/potiche-interview-with-francois-ozon-6/)
10. [Interview: François Ozon, director of 'Potiche', CineVue (7 October 2011)](https://cine-vue.com/2011/10/interview-francois-ozon-director-of-potiche.html?noamp=available)
11. [Potiche, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/potiche/5006936.article)
12. [Potiche Study Guide, Hélène Beaugy (2010)](https://julianwhiting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/potiche-study-guide-written-by-hc3a9lc3a8ne-beaugy-2010www-worldonlinecinema-com.pdf)
13. [Potiche, The Wee Review](https://www.theweereview.com/review/potiche/)
14. [Potiche (Trophy Wife), Exclaim!](https://exclaim.ca/film/article/potiche_trophy_wife-directed_by_francois_ozon)
15. [Teaching French Women's Rights with Le Deuxième Sexe and Potiche, AATF Conference Proceedings](https://assets.noviams.com/novi-file-uploads/aatf/pdfs_and_documents/Conference_Proceedings/TEACHING-FRENCH-WOMENS-RIGHTS-29a88602.pdf)
16. [ProCinema filmdb: Potiche](https://www.procinema.ch/de/statistics/filmdb/1007887.html)
17. [Critiques spectateurs Potiche, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-172873/critiques/spectateurs/recentes/)
18. [Où regarder Potiche, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/potiche)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2009 to 2010 › Released in 2010*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license