While France has produced more than their share of romantic comedies, and there have been plenty of recent movies about the current economic and political climate. Seldom if ever have those two very disparate ideas been put together, but in My Piece of the Pie, the new movie from Cedric Klapisch (Paris, L’Auberge Espagnole), the French filmmaker has found a way to tell an entertaining and comical story within the world of high finance.
It’s really the story of two people, Karin Viard’s France, a mother living in the suburbs of France, working at a factory until it’s closed down following the economic crash forcing her to commute to Paris to train as a maid. It’s also about Stéphane, played by Gilles Lelouche, a ruthless daytrader who will do whatever he can to get what he wants. When France gets a job as Stéphane’s maid, it takes some time for them to figure out a way to coexist, and after his 3-year-old son is left at his doorstep, he’s forced to rely on France to help take care of the boy, even while she’s neglecting her own kids back home. Through this arrangement, the boundaries between master and servant eventually break down, but can a financial shark like Stéphane really change his nature?
ComignSoon.net sat down with Klapisch at New York City’s historic Chelsea Hotel way back in May when he was in town for his film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere, but there’s something even more timely about the movie getting released now with all the protests taking place about the state of the country’s economy and how rich people like Steve are profiting on the misfortune of the poor. (Some of the things Klapisch said to us are fairly eerie when you realize this interview took place months before “Occupy Wall Street.)
Before we get to that interview, we also have an exclusive clip from late in the film after France and Stéphane have known each other for a while and she’s taking care of his son, and he tries to convince her to be his date to an event, pretending to be a Russian escort instead of his maid and nanny.
