The Student and Mister Henri

The Student and Mister Henri (L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri, 2015) is a French comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director Ivan Calbérac adapted his own stage play for the screen. Henri, played by Claude Brasseur, is a cantankerous Parisian widower whose deteriorating health forces him to take in a lodger — something he finds deeply offensive on principle.

The lodger, Constance (Noémie Schmidt), is a graduate student who has no idea she's being used as a pawn. Henri's actual plan is to deploy her against his son Paul's marriage: if Paul (Guillaume de Tonquédec) gets distracted, maybe the son will finally do what his father thinks he should. The scheme goes more or less according to plan, then completely sideways, then somewhere neither of them expected.

The film drew over two million tickets in French cinemas, which is a strong run for a low-stakes domestic comedy. Brasseur makes Henri genuinely difficult to like — until, very quietly, you find yourself on his side. Stream The Student and Mister Henri (2015) online on iFILM.