(France; 103 min.) As the “trophy wife” of the title, Catherine Deneuve is at once regal and sensible in director Francois (8 Women) Ozon’s gift to Deneuve and to French politics—sexual and otherwise. Set in a late-1970s French umbrella factory, this delightful bedroom and boardroom farce makes light work of heavy topics such as women’s liberation and corporate capitalism. Deneuve takes over the factory when her husband, the CEO (Fabrice Luchini, aping the womanizing French president, Nicolas Sarkozy), suffers a heart attack. She quickly wins over the workers, and allies with her former lover, the communist mayor (Gerard Depardieu, looking like an avuncular Brando). “She may be a trophy,” says her husband, “but she’s not on the shelf.” The breezy pace, stellar cast and homage to Deneuve’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg make for a splendid—if stage-bound—farce. (DH)
March 9 at 7pm, California Theater
The Nobel Prize Winner 
Plan 9 From Outer Space 
