Dir.
Michel Blanc, 2002, France/UK/Italy, 103 mins, some subtitles
Cast:
Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Blanc
Cannes Winner Michel Blanc is best know for his work as an actor with some of France's top directors, yet once again he turns his accomplished hand to directing this his fourth feature film. Adapted from the English novel by Joseph Connelly, Blanc proves that comedies of manners, deadpan humour, and the ability to be self-deprecating are not the sole preserve of the British.
Blanc skilfully blends these ingredients together in the mould of Charlotte Rampling (Under The Sand, Night Porter, Stardust Memories) as the wife of jaded husband Jacques Dutronc (Merci Pour Le Chocolat). In fact, the entire cast has at one time or another crossed paths together in films that read like an A-Z of contemporary French cinema.
Michal Blanc, best know to English audiences as Monsieur Hire in Patrice Leconte's superb film of the same name, not only directs this sparkling and subtle comedy but also delivers a crazed performance as a jealous control freak of his lover Carole Bouquet (For your Eyes Only, Trop Belle Pour Toi, New York Stories).
The film follows the ups and sometimes downs of a group of Parisian friends holidaying in the Normandy resort of Le Touquet. Rampling plays Elizabeth, a glamorous housewife who runs the show. It's when she offers to share the hotel suite with single mum Julie, Cannes sensation Clotilde Courau, that's things become icky.
Understandably horrified at spending a week away with his wife and ex-lover, husband Bertrand decides to stay home with his new transsexual lover, Rena.
If that isn't enough, Elizabeth invites Vero (Karin Viard) and her suicidal husband Jerome along for the fun; only one snag - they're broke and resort to staying in a surreal trailer park that makes the Ikea ads seem normal. Tagging along is the couple's virginal son Loic who has eyes for Elizabeth.
The fun truly begins once we hit the resort and watch the couples interact, and misunderstandings begin to occur. Its when Julie runs off with womaniser and bondage freak Maxime, leaving her baby with Vero, that the comedy heats up and we really get a sense of what the film is about. Life, its oddities and discoveries, and how in the scheme of things it's what happens on a day-to-day basis that really matters. The film follows how, through the course of the week, the characters come to understand their lives, and to appreciate the little things, like family, companionship, good food and love. The performances from the cast add weight and conviction to a film which could have so easily developed in to Gaelic farce, sort of a French Fish called Wanda.
Yet the film manages to convey such a sense of these characters as human and everyday that you can't help but imagine your own seaside adventures and compare notes.
The supporting younger cast excels in their portrayal of young loves, confused yet full of the starry-eyed joy of life. Lou Doillin, daughter of Jane Birkin, gives a fabulous performance as Elizabeth's sex crazed and love struck daughter Emilie, whilst Clotilde Courau as the clueless Julie, Gaspard Ulliel as Loic, and Melanie Laurent his holiday romance, lighten up the picture as rising bright young things and certainly faces to watch.
An enjoyable romp that will make both young and old smile.
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