Sérieux comme le plaisir (1975)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Robert Benayoun

Writers:

Robert Benayoun (writer)
Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)

Release Date:

15 January 1975 (France)

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Female Nudity | Bath

Cast

Jane Birkin	...	Ariane Berg
Richard Leduc	...	Bruno
Raymond Bussières	...	Le pêcheur (Buster Keaton)
Georges Mansart	...	Patrice
Paul Demange	...	Le "spécialiste" des jeux de cartes
Hubert Deschamps	...	L'homme au restaurant
Marc Dudicourt	...	Le mercier
Martine Kelly
Isabelle Huppert	...	Une fille ramenée à la maison
Francis Perrin	...	Le vendeur de voitures
Roger Riffard	...	L'homme dans le champ
Jacques Spiesser	...	L'homme au km 103
Jacques Villeret	...	Le gendarme à la télévision
Jean-Luc Bideau	...	Le désespéré / Man on the Road
Roland Dubillard	...	M. Berg, le père d'Ariane / Ariane's father

Also Known As:

Serious as Pleasure (International: English title)

Runtime:

USA:96 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Dovidis

A movie for French cinephiles

A trio of a hip, arty young people involved in some kind of strange menage a trois (two guys and a girl) relationship enjoy passing their considerable leisure time by playing absurd jokes on strangers (like calling people on the phone and pretending to be the very person that they're talking to). After they win some kind of lottery, they decide to take a vacation (from what little work they actually seem to do) and embark on a strange, random road trip where they encounter all kinds of bizarre and colorful characters.

Your enjoyment of this movie will no doubt be directly proportional to your tolerance of French culture and French cinema in general. You may very well find it annoying and insufferably pretentious, or you might find it light-hearted absurdist fun depending. My personal opinion is somewhere in between. It is genuinely funny in places, but the "freak the squares" games the characters enjoy playing seems rather pointless since everyone they meet acts even more bizarrely than they do. (It kind of makes you wonder who the joke is really on).

The two most recognizable actors here are Jane Birkin, as the female lead, and Isabelle Huppert, in a much smaller part. Birkin is probably most famous today as the wife of the late French music legend Serg Gainsbourg and the mother of actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, but she was probably even sexier (if less talented) than Charlotte back in the day (and she has some nice nude scenes here). Huppert, of course, is now probably the most respected actress in France, so it is always interesting to see her in these obscure early roles. French cinephiles will really dig this movie I think. As for anyone else, well . . .