I had to ask our resident fashion, beauty and French speaking expert for a translation of the title Le Chignon D’Olga. Like the subtitlers she replied – with I’m sure a smug look on her face – The Chignon Of Olga, or Olga’s Chignon. None the wiser I had to go back to the oracle to find out what a chignon was. She replied, again from the high ground of knowledge = power, that a chignon is a kind of hair cut, a bun but not exactly a bun because then we would just use the word bun to translate it rather than use the original chignon.
The annoying thing is that the character referred to as Olga in the film did not seem to have a bun. There was nothing particularly arresting about her hair. This kind of slippery definition fits the film perfectly, a slice of life gentle comedy about a family coping after the death of the mother. It is slow, it is thoughtful and does nothing particularly new, but it does have a sense of style and it does feel nicely rounded off at the end. It also has one stand out hilarious scene when our lead tries to impress said Olga by getting a friend to come on to her so he can act the hero. Coming after an hour of slow, awkward scenes, this moment of true comedy puts the whole thing into relief. You can say more with a laugh sometimes. More than a haircut certainly.