Edging into territory occupied by Bong Joon Ho’s scintillating Parasite, French director Anthony Cordier’s altogether sunnier satire (Classe Moyenne, originally) pits the wealthy Trousselards against the working-class family, the Azizis, who look after their chic holiday villa.

The arrangement has been going on for years and, at face value, it suits everyone. The Trousselards (high-profile lawyer Philippe, his fading-star actress wife Laurence and their would-be starlet daughter Garance) spend most of their time in Paris anyway, and they pay the Azizis – Tony, Nadine and daughter Marylou – a sub-market rate in cash to look after the place in their absence, which allows the Azizis to keep claiming state benefits.

But class resentment can only be buried for so long and, after an unpleasant blocked-pipe emergency leaves him drenched in sewage, a drunk Tony unloads on his employers.

Ramzy Bedia, Noée Abita and Laure Calamy in The Party’s Over!

Appalled by his insolence, Philippe fires Tony, which in turn rouses Laurence to bargain hard for their reinstatement and/or compensation. It falls to Garance’s new boyfriend, Mehdi (Sami Outalbali), an earnest young law-school graduate from a migrant family, to mediate the dispute – with ultimately disastrous results.

The screenplay’s setup and symmetries are a touch neat, perhaps, but its playful skewering of France’s entrenched inequities and post-colonial mindset is effective. It’s entertainingly hard on the acting profession, too, with mother and daughter Laurence and Garance (Noée Abita) portrayed as scheming ingénue lightweights.

Cordier has an excellent cast at his disposal. Laurent Lafitte and Élodie Bouchez drip entitlement as the smug Trousselards. Ramzy Bedia and the ever-watchable Laure Calamy make for a formidable pair as Tony and Nadine.

The film’s violent climax lacks the chilling brutality of Parasite’s, but it packs a surprise punch nonetheless, and the film’s deeply cynical final frames stay with you.

The Party’s Over! (Classe Moyenne) screens in cinemas nationally from 27 August.

95 mins

Rated M