Mr. Blake at Your Service!

Since the death of his wife, English businessman Andrew Blake (John Malkovich) has lost all joy in life. On an impulse, he travels to France, to the country estate where he once met her. But the lady of the house, Nathalie Beauvillier (Fanny Ardant), is short of money and has long stopped taking guests – and so Blake is mistakenly hired as a butler on trial. Instead of clearing up the misunderstanding, he takes the job and is soon meddling in the lives of the idiosyncratic household, among them the cook Odile (Émilie Dequenne) and the taciturn gardener Magnier (Philippe Bas). Best-selling author Gilles Legardinier adapted his own 2012 novel, which has sold over a million copies and been translated into 17 languages, together with Christel Henon and directed it himself – his feature debut. The result is a melancholy feel-good comedy about grief and second chances that thrives on its ensemble: John Malkovich, usually cast in sinister roles, plays the eccentric butler with dry humour, Fanny Ardant lends the lady of the house grandeur, and Émilie Dequenne, who rose to fame as the Dardenne brothers’ “Rosetta”, brings warmth.