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May Fools (Milou en mai)

May Fools (Milou en mai)

Movie · 1990 · 14 people

Louis Malle's 1990 comedy Milou en mai, a French-Italian production, reached British cinemas as Milou in May and North American ones as May Fools. With the events of May 1968 in the background, a well-off provincial family squabbles over who gets what from an inheritance, in a story that is part social satire and part farce. Malle wrote the screenplay with Jean-Claude Carrière; it runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place at Château du Calaoue in the Gers. The film won a César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Milou lives quietly with his mother in their country home. Her sudden death brings the family home, among them Camille and her relatives, and Claire with her girlfriend. Milou dreams of staying on the land, while the others want the house sold and the shares divided. Because strikes and demonstrations are gripping the country, the body cannot be buried, and the family is stuck together around it. Greed, a failed marriage and hesitant sexual experiments surface.

Michel Piccoli plays Milou, Miou-Miou is Camille, and Michel Duchaussoy and Bruno Carette also star; Dominique Blanc, Paulette Dubost, François Berléand and Valérie Lemercier also appear. The film is read as a biting, highly ironic allegory of 1968: the family home stands for the nation, and the question is whether it can be saved.

DirectorLouis Malle

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François Berléand François Berléand Actor · 74 years old Daniel Valérie Lemercier Valérie Lemercier Actor · 62 years old Mrs. Boutelleau Miou-Miou Michel Piccoli Michel Duchaussoy Dominique Blanc Paulette Dubost Bruno Carette Harriet Walter Jeanne Herry Jacqueline Staup Hubert Saint-Macary Étienne Draber Stéphane Paoli

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Through different eyes

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Malle's smartest choice is to show May 1968 not from the street but from a family house in the provinces. While the strikes gripping the country even hold up a funeral, a well-off family's rush to split the inheritance shrinks the era's big questions to a small, absurd scale. Reading the house as the nation seems right to me: some want to stay on the land, others want to sell and take their share. So the film tells 1968 not as a revolutionary legend but as a satire of the bourgeoisie's bewilderment in those days. It will not do for anyone wanting the political history in detail; as a way of reading the mood of the time from a family table, it is rich.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Jean-Claude Carrière's hand on the script explains the fine balance between satire and farce. Malle makes the wait for a burial that cannot happen the engine of the whole film; that sense of being stuck is a clever dramatic device, keeping everyone in one place so that greed, a failed marriage and hesitant experiments can surface. Milou, who wants to stay on the land, is a natural centre of gravity against the relatives who want to sell, which makes Piccoli's role the film's compass. My reservation: as the farce gets broader, the allegory reads a little too plainly in places and the symbol announces itself. Still, as one of the director's last films, it is light on the surface and sharp underneath.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

This is not one to watch with children. The story is a funeral and a fight over an inheritance, with greed, a failing marriage and some sexual experimenting in the family. There is plenty of humour, but it is adult humour with a sharp edge of irony. Fine with the grown-ups, especially those who can laugh at family rows. For teenagers who know nothing about May 1968, it may not mean much.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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