Harvey Keitel: Friday March and Mallorcan Housekeeper

harvey keitel: Rating NNSpanish cinema and fashion icon Rossy de Palma is seen far too infrequently on big screens in this country, much less in an English-language, romantic leading role, according to NOW Magazine. In writer/director Amanda Sthers's Madame, de Palma plays against her statuesque glamazon image as Maria, a timid but efficient Mallorcan housekeeper employed by bickering Americans-in-Paris Anne and Bob Fredericks Toni Collette and Harvey Keitel . The wealthy couple is planning a dinner party for 12, but when Bob's floppy-haired English son Tom Hughes shows up, superstitious Anne the madame of the title coaxes Maria into posing as a guest to ensure even numbers. Opens Friday March 23 . See listing. During an extended and predictable dinner party scene, anxious Maria downs copious amounts of red wine and tells dick jokes that charm the table and capture the heart of Irish art dealer David Michael Smiley . It's a paper-thin set-up designed less as an entr e into comedy or romance than a belaboured social commentary that name-checks words like Brexit but has no real interest in grappling with them. Her anger is compounded by her bland sex life and a threat of financial ruin. Though the shrill Anne calls herself a life-long Democrat, she is unapologetically racist Nobody invites Filipinos to a dinner party, she explains when Maria suggests another maid should pose as a party guest and becomes outright hostile when her hard-working immigrant housekeeper upends a long-entrenched power dynamic. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.