1968年5月,正值风起云涌的五月学运风暴席卷整个法国。南部一个宁静的村庄中,一家人因为奶奶的过世而聚集在一起。皮寇利扮演的家中长子,必须面对一家人为了家产的分配而不断的吵嘴和纠缠。 马勒的后期文艺片,蕴涵社会象征意义。导演借助一个在五月风暴下的家庭纷扰,来象征外部社会变革时普通人的反应和心理变化,主角隐喻代表法国传统文化的中产阶级,虽然面对革命时热情十足,但激情过后还是一如既往,没有变化。印象主义画派的优美自然风光和法式的温情家庭笑料、爵士乐的闲适庸懒,都是这部典型法国小资喜剧作品吸引人的元素。Like Vanya, in Malle's last film, Milou never left the family estate. His mother dies during the May 1968 student uprising in Paris. The brother who is the London correspondent for Le Monde keeps turning up the volume of the radio for the latest news. A deceased sister's interest in the estate is represented by a niece who is an antique dealer, who is most interested in grandmother's emerald ring that Milou's daughter Camille has already slipped on her finger. A non-relative, a truck driver who can't deliver his load of tomatoes in Paris, brings a nephew who was part of the uprising. Everyone is on strike and the matriarch can't be buried.