Guillaume Gallienne’s audacious motherly love

One of the most usual and most lauded French films in recent years is Les garçons et Guillaume à table, which picked up five awards, including best film, best actor and best adaption screenplay for Guillaume Gallienne at the 39th César Awards held in 2014. It was also nominated in five other categories.

Gallienne plays the role of Guillaume and his mother as well (he makes a more convincing mum than a schoolboy, which is not surprising as he was in his early 40s when he made the film). An accomplished theatre actor, he originally did the piece as a one-man play, for which he won many awards too. The story is autobiographical and tackles gender identity. To put it simply, it is about a boy who thinks he is a girl (and who is fascinated by his mother), and because he is effeminate, he is perceived by most people except himself to be gay.

The French title would be translated as “The boys and William at the table” but the film has been given the English title of “Me, myself and mum”.

Here is another trailer with some slightly different scenes.