Josiane Balasko in “The Hedgehog”

To play the part of Renée Michel, actress Josiane Balasko shaved her eyebrows off and wore a nappy wig. She was restricted to the palette of brown, black and grey, and never really smiled. But as Balasko sat casually smoking on the roof deck of a midtown building in New York, she was chuckling, her red lips constantly breaking into a smile.


Directed by Mona Achache, the 100-minute French film was adapted from Muriel Barbery’s novel “The Elegance of the Hedgehog.” Renée is a secretly well-read concierge in Paloma’s building. She sweeps, distributes the mail and lives on the first floor. But she also reads every night in her extensive library; a room filled to the brim with books that she keeps closed and locked whenever it is vacant.

“The concierge only exists in a luxurious building but for me it is pure fiction. It’s a kind of philosophical fable, a symbol, a fairy tale,” Balasko said.

A widow of 15 years, Renée and Paloma collide with the arrival of Kakuro Ozu (Togo Igawa), a Japanese businessman who recognizes Renée’s intelligence, despite her looks.

“She is like sleeping beauty, I don’t know if she’s a beauty but the prince is coming,” added Balasko. “For me the ugliness is like a mask and when you are wearing a mask, it’s very reassuring. It’s not you. You can be you under the mask. I am other people when I am acting and behind this personality I can try to find the truth.”

Renée undergoes a stark makeover in her attempt to woo Kakuro and magical things happen. A goldfish flushed by Paloma ends up in Renée’s toilet.

But ultimately this fairy tale cannot be. [SPOLIER ALERT]

“Imagine if she doesn’t die. She will live with the Japanese guy in the beautiful apartment, maybe? But that romance is for an American movie,” Balasko said. “And it’s not an American movie, its French. It is not ‘Pretty Woman.’”

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