Maid in Paris: Music Box Films Works Overtime for Eric Gravel’s “Full-Time“

France’s pick to represent the country at the Oscars is in, but Music Box Films had gone ahead and landed the well-received Venice title from ’21 nonetheless. Eric Gravel’s À plein temps (aka Full Time) landed the Best Director and Best Actress awards in the Horizons section and further cemented that Laure Calamy is having a definite turning moment in her career. The distrib are planning a 2023 release. Calamy just returned from the same Venice sidebar with The Origin of Evil – which also preemed in Toronto.

This is about a single mother (Calamy) who goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the suburbs while holding down a demanding job as head chambermaid in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for another position she had long been hoping for, a national strike breaks out, paralyzing the public transport system. The fragile balance that Julie has established is jeopardized. Julie then sets off on a frantic race against time while juggling a reluctant babysitter, hostile co-workers, unreliable trains, a broken boiler, and a host of other mundane obstacles that collectively accrue unstoppable force.