Hervé in his step-family is a painful experience: he may get on well with Brigitte, but the others are a world away, full of a mentally constipated bourgeois urban existence that is far from the rural idyll which has been Hervé's life. Albert visits to tell of Jeanne's ill health, Hervé runs from his new home to see her on her deathbed, and as his father and step-mother come to take him back to Paris the series closes.
An expression I didn't know is 'faire chabrot', which has many dialectal variations, but refers to diluting the thick bottom content of a dish of soup with wine. It is apparently then often drunk straight from the dish, although Paul uses a spoon. He also uses a large quantity of wine: Paul's drinking is one of the criticisms of his wife Hélène, and (as a strong contrast to the life that Hervé has known at La Maison des bois) the relationship is far from idyllic. This is my first Pialat, and certainly won't be my last.
Conveniently, the French Wikipédia provides a précis of each episode, which I give at the bottom of each post here: as La Maison des bois deserves more than one long blog post, I make seven short ones.
Épisode 7
1 La tour Eiffel – 2 Hervé et sa belle-famille – 3 Hervé et Brigitte – 4 L’atelier d’ébénisterie – 5 La cartomancienne – 6 Faire chabrot – 7 Le père d’Hervé a disparu – 8 – Devoirs d’école – 9 La dispute – 10 Les confidences d’un père – 11 Le cauchemar d’Hervé – 12 Le petit déjeuner au lit – 13 Hélène et Brigitte – 14 Albert à Paris – 15 La fugue d’Hervé – 16 Maman Jeanne se meurt – 17 Les gendarmes enquêtent – 18 Hervé revient à la Maison des bois - 19 Le marquis raisonne Hervé – 20 Au chevet de Maman Jeanne – 21 Générique
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