But old Pédret, who knows that his sons have their spirits broken, can see that Berthe has the blunt good sense they lack, and he arranges for Bethe and Hector to be married.

Eventually, Berthe comes to control the family's fortunes, but economic challenges in the 1950s force her to turn to an unlikely source for financial help: her obnoxious sister-in-law Regina who has come back, more stunning than ever, with an American industrialist lover.

The film’s style mingles European and American directors Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Orson Welles, William Wyler, Jean Cocteau Alfred Hitchcock, Jacques Tati among others.

[2] The flashback sequence of Pedret’s youth wings from Wuthering Heights and the flaming silhouettes of Gone with the Wind to The Conformist and The Spider's Stratagem.

[3] Despite the fact that her character in the film scarcely seems to age over a 30-year period, she appears perfectly at ease with this style of drama and shows a surprising comic flair in some scenes.