May Fools

France, May 1968: Paris is choking on student barricades while, down south among the vineyards, an old woman quietly dies on her family estate. That's the spark of May Fools (Milou en Mai, 1990), a comedy-drama by Louis Malle you can watch online on iFILM.

Milou, a gentle beekeeper, calls the relatives home for the funeral, and what arrives instead is a small circus of greed. A daughter, a nephew, a granddaughter, a truck driver — each is already carving up the furniture, the land, the silver in their heads. The burial keeps stalling; even the gravediggers have joined the nationwide strike. Michel Piccoli plays the bewildered Milou, with Miou-Miou and Paulette Dubost beside him, as the camera lingers over long lunches on the grass, squabbles over heirlooms, and one almost pagan night when the family forgets who owes whom.

Malle turns it into a tart, tender farce about a bourgeoisie that slept through its own revolution — airy in tone, with a sour aftertaste. It's for anyone who loves French films built around the dinner table, where laughter slowly uncovers a whole era. Stream May Fools (1990) online on iFILM.