In ‘Mama,’ There’s a Man Playing Pygmalion Again

Movies about poor working girls finding fairy-tale joy with rich executives had quite a run a while back.

In “Pretty Woman,” pure-hearted hooker Julia Roberts zoomed to happiness with disillusioned tycoon Richard Gere. Before that was “Working Girl,” where ambitious but forever ignored secretary Melanie Griffith literally charmed the pants off Wall Street stud Harrison Ford.

The French even got into this Pygmalion-for-the-’80s act with “Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed,” a hit (originally released as “Romuald et Juliette”) in France in 1989 before quietly coming to the States in early 1990.

In simple inspiration (and often in execution), Coline Serreau’s picture (which screens Friday night as part of Golden West College’s foreign film series) often has the air of a Hollywood product. Beyond the plot similarities with such movies as “Pretty Woman” and “Working Girl,” “Mama” opts for the same easy emotions and breezy, uncomplicated resolutions that Hollywood lazily embraces all the time.

You can watch this film about the love that breaks out between a sleek white executive (Daniel Auteuil) and his black cleaning woman (Firmine Richard) without much effort; Serreau’s comedy spends hardly any time considering the class distinctions involved, whether economic or racial.

“Mama” is really more about a utopia where any kind of romance is possible and everybody is happy in the end. It’s not surprising that when the last credits roll, all the characters, both big and small, wear a beatific smile. Former lovers and spouses, what seem like dozens of kids from earlier unions, even an enemy or two, join together in a Zen-like state of grace.

It’s a sweet idea, all this brotherhood, but more than just a bit fantastic. Serreau even defended her optimistic conclusions in a few interviews, saying the notion behind “Mama” is one of fancy, not fact. It’s a comedy, after all, almost a farce. But it does throw you off when you finally realize that the class differences between her hero and heroine aren’t much more than window dressing.

“Mama” turns into a smooth love story by the end, but it doesn’t start that way. The picture begins almost contradictorily complicated, with separate schemes--one involving an insider-trading scandal, the other a poisoning of the yogurt company’s product--threatening to topple the president, Romuald. He’s blithely going along, oblivious to the machinations around him, content with his beautiful wife and beautiful mistress when the yogurt hits the fan.

Eventually, he teams up with the cleaning woman, Juliette, to restore his honor and job. Serreau is clever in providing Juliette with clues. All the office plotters talk freely around her; it’s as if she doesn’t exist.

Other passages intended to define the gap between Romuald and Juliette are more hastily offered: intercutting scenes of Romuald’s rich lifestyle with Juliette’s impoverished one are right out of the book of cinema cliches.

Still, it isn’t hard overlooking “Mama’s” lapses. Serreau (who also directed and wrote “Three Men and a Cradle”) exhibits a delicate touch; the humor floats in many places, especially during the earliest minutes when the back-stabbing office politics are laid out.

And even when things get contrived and poorly focused in the central relationship, Richard always comes across as unaffected and honest. She brings integrity to Juliette, who turns out to be the classiest act in this little dream world.

What: Coline Serreau’s “Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed.”

When: Friday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Golden West College’s Forum II theater, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (I-405) Freeway to Golden West Street and head south.

Wherewithal: $3 and $3.50.

Where to call: (714) 891-3991.