Housewarming (French: Travaux, meaning Home Improvement, subtitled On sait quand ça commence... / We know when it begins...) is a 2005 French comedy film directed by Brigitte Roüan.
In Paris, Chantal Letellier (Carole Bouquet), a lawyer involved in defending homeless illegal immigrants, decides to refurbish her apartment in order to get rid of a sleazy client she defended, Frankie 'Pupuce' Poussin (Jean-Pierre Castaldi), who has a big crush on her and invites himself in her life. Following her convictions, she hires Colombian workers led by a talentless architect. Soon, Chantal's life and the "home improvement" spiral out of control...
Housewarming provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer:
- The fat and loud Frankie has a big crush on Chantal and keeps trying to win her over, much to her dismay.
- The fat Luis (who's married) also tries his luck on his crush with Chantal as she is way more sympathetic to him since he's an immigrant. Unlike Frankie, he doesn't insist when she rejects his declaration of love.
- Amicable Exes: Chantal and her ex-husband have remained in good terms.
- Beneath Notice: One of Chantal's clients is an illegal African immigrant. He's poor and doesn't have papers, but he wears a nice suit, which, according to him, considerably increases the chances of avoiding paper checking by the police when he walks in the streets.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Chantal is a 48 year old lawyer who's (at least initially) well off and dedicates her life to defend and protect paperless immigrants.
- Brick Joke: At one point, after enduring everything from the workers and shouting at them, Chantal says the only thing missing is water damage... then later, at the housewarming party that's raided by the police, a pipe bursts and plenty of water leaks.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Chantal has unusual methods to plead in her cases in addition to knowing the law, including breakdancing by the end, and it always works in her favor.
- The Cameo: An unexpected Hugh Grant as the new unnamed neighbor of Chantal at the very end.
- Crooked Contractor: Eduardo and the workers do a really, really amateurish job of renovating Chantal's apartment, although they never intended to screw her. They visibly lack the training and professional qualities such jobs require.
- Didn't Think This Through: Chantal hires illegal workers to do "small" changes in her apartment... and they lack training, certifications and methods to do it properly and ruin many things in her apartment, in addition to the architect doing things Chantal didn't ask for. Worst of all, it's winter and they opened holes in many places...
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral can be seen in the background as Chantal goes to work on foot at one point.
- Glamorous Single Mother: The "glamorous" part comes from the fact that Chantal is an attractive single lawyer, and she doesn't struggle too much financially. Otherwise, her main initial 'struggle' is the fact she has no authority on her teen children. Then the home 'improvement' make things much worse on all fronts.
- Hello, Attorney!: Chantal is an attractive lawyer who uses her physical charms in court (such as showing off her stockings) to help win her cases. And it works, somehow.
- The Illegal: Chantal is very invested in the defense of illegal immigrants who lack papers, be it in court or at demonstrations in Paris. The Colombian architect and workers she hires are illegals also. Immigration is "sacred" to her and she slaps her son when he starts calling her life's fight for them into question.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Chantal's mother mistakes their old Cambodian housemaid for a Chinese, as Chantal has to remind her.
- No Indoor Voice: Frankie talks quite loudly (a trademark of his actor, Jean-Pierre Castaldi).
- No OSHA Compliance: The illegal Colombian workers' methods terribly lack both care and safety.
- Parental Fashion Veto: Chantal thoroughly disapproves of the way her teen daughter likes to dress (tight denims and exposed midriff).
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frankie feigns sympathizing with the Colombians to try winning Chantal over, but as soon as she firmly says "No", he starts insulting them with "rastaquouère" (from Spanish "rastracuero"), a slur against people of Hispanic heritage.
- Pornstache: Frankie has such as mustache initially, to emphasize that he's an Abhorrent Admirer bordering on Dirty Old Man.
- Rescue Equipment Attack: The final time Chantal rejects Frankie's advances/stalking, she uses a fire extinguisher to shoo him away.
- Stalker with a Crush: Frankie stalks Chantal with his car when she goes out for the night with another lawyer at one point. He goes as far as sabotaging the car of her date that night, taking his car's wheels out.
- Subtitle: "On sait quand ça commence..." ("We know when it begins..."). It implies "we don't know when it ends" (for the shoddy home improvement works).
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Chantal is outright incapable of telling Frankie to leave her apartment and her life period, and resorts to have very shoddy home improvement works done in order to push him out. Eventually, she stands up to him and firmly tells him to go away, and when he objects, she shoos him away using a fire extinguisher.
- Too Important to Remember You: Chantal misnames one of her colleagues and tells him to salute his wife on her behalf... while he's actually been divorced for six months by that point.
