L'Invitation (The Invitation) is a 1973 film from Switzerland directed by Claude Goretta.
The film starts out at an anonymous office...somewhere. Remy, one of the office drones, is a meek bachelor who looks to be on the wrong side of 50 but still lives with his mom at home. One day, Remy's boss Pierre Collard, gets a call: Remy's mom has died. Remy faints dead away when he is told, and Mr. Collard grants him two months bereavement leave.
The rest of the office is surprised some time later to get invitations from Remy inviting them all to his new home. They are even more surprised when they arrive at Remy's house and find it to be a lavish mansion in the country with spacious grounds—apparently that house in the city that Remy inherited from his mother was quite valuable.
Everybody from the office shows up: Mr. Collard, Mr. Lamel the Jerkass junior manager, "Miss Emma" the oldest person in the office, Maurice the too-boisterous younger man, Aline the hot secretary, and others. Drinks are served, more drinks are served, almost everybody (except for Lamel the jerk) loosens up, and eventually things get out of hand.
Tropes:
- Book Ends: The film begins and ends with scenes of everyone in their exceedingly dull office, banging away at typewriters. The ending is ironic, seeing as how Aline has disappeared after making a spectacle of herself at the party, and everyone else seems to be pretending that nothing happened.
- Commitment Issues: Maurice brings his attractive girlfriend Helene to the party, but as he tells a coworker, he doesn't want to get tied down to a relationship with her. (He's also clearly trying to make a threesome with Aline happen, but he can't pull it off.)
- Establishing Character Moment: When everyone else hustles out of the office at lunch, Remy sits at his desk eating from a lunch box and leafing through a book of botany. Then he walks home and has dinner with his elderly mom. He's revealed to be a shy and quiet bachelor in late middle age.
- Fainting: Remy faints after taking the call at the office and finding out that his mother has died.
- Fan Disservice: Sexy Aline strips down to nothing but a pair of panties, while talking about how she likes to look out the window at work. She's drunk, and Collard and Lamel yell at her to put some clothes on, and Aline winds up running off in tears.
- Fauxshadow:
- Emile, the butler who Remy hired to work his party, has a vaguely mysterious air and seems to have a secret and gives a lot of oddly knowing looks. It seems like this will pay off in the story, but it doesn't.
- A strange man is lurking about the grounds: Lamel first notices him sleeping in the bushes, and Aline later runs into him as she's out and about. He's revealed to be a burglar that the police are looking for. This also doesn't really affect the story, as the burglar is simply arrested at the end of the film.
- Hypocrite: Aline flings this exact word (in French, but it's the same word) at her boss Mr. Collard, who gets all judgmental after she takes her clothes off, but also has a wife and a mistress and is in the process of making Simone from the office his other mistress. Come Monday and the return to work, and Aline isn't there.
- No Antagonist: As there is no story there's not really a bad guy. The closest is Lamel, who is an uptight jerk. But he does dance with Emma, and he's not wrong about Maurice being an obnoxious jackass, and he's not wrong about Emile the butler being irresponsible about continuing to serve drinks until Aline is so tanked that she's standing on a chair and taking her clothes off.
- Old Maid: Emma, whom everybody calls "Miss Emma". Remy tells his boss that he was hesitant to invite families because Emma, who is alone in the world, might feel left out.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Although not in the usual way. Remy's mom dies, which leads him to sell the house that they lived in, which was apparently highly valuable being in the middle of downtown, which allows Remy to buy a gaudy mansion in the country and invite his coworkers.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Marcel's hot girlfriend Helene wears to the party a yellow sundress with no back.
- Sexy Secretary: Aline the pretty redhead, who is also given to wearing skirts that are probably too short for the office.
- Shower of Angst: After humiliating herself by stripping outside at the party, a crying Aline takes a shower, assisted by Mr. Mermet who just happened to be inside on the phone when an almost naked Aline ran past him in hysterics.
- Slice of Life: There's no real story. People come to a co-workers surprisingly huge mansion, they drink, they wander around the grounds, they drink more, a couple of people embarrass themselves, and everyone goes home.
- Standard Office Setting: The first act is set in an office that is so generic that the film doesn't even give a hint what the business actually is.
- Suck Out the Poison: Marcel acts like he's doing this when Helene gets stung by a bee, but it's really foreplay.
- While You Were in Diapers: Maurice makes some unfunny sarcastic comments about the French army, which enrages Lamel. A furious Lamel says of Marcel: "I have been mobilized for 800 days, while Mr. Dutoit was pissing his pants!"
