Hunting and Gathering

Hunting and Gathering is a 2007 French romantic film based on the writer Anna Gavalda's 2004 novel Hunting and Gathering. It was directed by Claude Berri, who also wrote the screenplay, and stars Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker, Françoise Bertin and Alain Sachs. It premiered on 21 March 2007. Plot The film opens showing the day-to-day life of an elderly lady named Paulette. Paulette lives alone, dedicated to her animals, in particular her cats, and her garden. Her worst fear is of dying far from her home and garden. However, when she takes a fall she is sent to hospital who then advise that she recovers in a nursing-home, much to her dismay. Meanwhile, Camille, an artist and cleaning lady, lives a lonely and anorexic life in a small attic in Paris. One day she meets the shy postcard salesman Philibert, who is in temporary custody of a grand apartment in her building. This belonged to his recently deceased aristocratic forebear, and is filled with heirlooms. Philibert has arranged his life to have as little contact with the outer world as possible. Instead he lets his lodger, Franck - who works as a low-ranked cook in a big restaurant - take care of his shopping and other such things. Philibert and Franck are complete opposites; Philibert is a gentleman, with classical interests and preoccupations, who stutters when anxious. Franck is constantly busy; brash, gruff, confrontational and confident. He works long hours at the restaurant, and habitually spends his only day off going to visit his grandmother Paulette, who raised him. Camille reaches out to Philibert on impulse, inviting him to 'picnic' in her attic. They hit it off, but in apparent denial of her sexual potency, Camille then has her hair cropped, "manière de petit garçon". Philibert's sexual orientation at this time in the movie is also not delineated.