I enjoyed the film because The Women on the 6th Floor was beautiful, had great acting, a light touch & is French, but it is very American in how it addresses issues of poverty, exploitation, politics, ethnicity like The Help. Spoilers to follow:
Because I’m not from France or Spain or familiar with political/social climate in those countries in 60s, I kept substituting Spanish female immigrants for Black women and instead of a French rich employer, a white man who suddenly cares about black people who work for him and then suddenly discovers & loves insert here whatever Black cultural product fits in this scenario. It is an awkward and imperfect parallel, but is a similar & common trope in US. I did it to stop loving the movie without questioning the premise. An aging man has been satisfied and completely not curious about the people who reside in his home and worked for him his entire life until he gets a hot ethnic maid then he suddenly cares about their situation, changes the awful conditions in HIS PLACE, adopts their culture, dumps his family & changes his life for love. On one hand, the story is delightful because it shows how he finally lives and falls out of the pattern that society expects for him, but it is using an awful trope that all you need is a little exotic flavor in your life & you will be adopted by another culture. There was one character in the movie that constantly questions the authenticity of his sudden concern about their plight or his ability to solve their problems, but even she stops and is won over by his conversion. I enjoyed the movie, but I have a strong suspicion that I would not if I kept questioning its assumptions