IN his second feature, writer/director Stephane Robelin sends clear messages about the eighth decade of life to five middle-class Parisians, close chums for 40 years.

Nothing so far in life has educated Jean (Guy Bedos), his wife Annie (Geraldine Chaplin), widower Albert (Pierre Richard), widow Jeanne (Jane Fonda) and lothario bachelor Claude (Claude Riche) about how to deal with the mid-seventies and beyond. Living in a retirement home is simply not on.

The theme may evoke “Best Marigold Hotel” but the differences are basic. The friendship years lead to an ablation of surprises about each other. Or do they? They all know Claude’s womanising. But they are all hiding personal secrets that the film exposes to acquire meaning and dramatic tension.

This happens among a tapestry of life’s ordinary experiences when the three unattached members of the group move into the house that Annie inherited. Annie is sad that her grandchildren seldom visit. So she installs a swimming pool on what was Jean’s kitchen garden. Jeanne is busy planning her burial. The group engages a dishy PhD candidate Dirk (Daniel Buhl) to walk the large dog that caused Claude to fall.

Around this general framework, Robelin’s film examines the commonplaces of septuagenarian life – degenerating physical capabilities, sharing housekeeping and cooking, Claude’s plea for Dirk to persuade the GP to prescribe Viagra, Jeanne’s acknowledgement that masturbation may be second best, but absence of best is worse. The screenplay canvasses these experiences with gentle humour, perceptiveness, compassion and credibility. You don’t have to be geriatric to take comfort and satisfaction from it.

At Greater Union