Le hérisson (The Hedgehog) is a French film directed by Mona Achache, based loosely on the novel by Muriel Barbery. It features the delicate acting of Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic, and Togo Igawa in beautiful scenes of carefully composed cinematography. This is one of those films that doesn't really have a distinct or eventful storyline, which seems to be a trait more common in European films than in that of Hollywood, but it cleverly weaves together the every day lives of these people living in a Parisian apartment in such a way that the viewer is engaged in their story, and we want to know how their days unfold as they go about their quirky routines.
'Renee is the concierge if a grand Parisian apartment building; reliable, gruff, and totally uncultured, she conforms to expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this prickly facade lies the real Renee, a woman passionate about literature and the arts, and in many ways more knowledgeable than her outwardly successful but emotionally vapid employers.
Meanwhile, several floors up, precocious eleven-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future that seems laid out before her. In an effort to show how absurd her life is, she takes up an old camera to film the people around her - her parents, her teenage sister and even their building's grumpy concierge.
But little do either Paloma or Renee know that their lives will change forever with the arrival of an elegant and enigmatic new neighbour Mr. Ozu.'
