Bastard Brood (1996) User Reviews

The life of four entirely different people is suddenly mixed together. They didn´t know they have the same father...

[toni123 · 7/10 · 22 April 2001]

Enfants de salaud is a very funny comedy! There are three middleaged women and one man, Sylvette , Sophie, Susan and Sandro, and they all don´t know who and where their father is. Some day they all see him in the newspaper, he is a murderer! All four come to the process and meet the others by chance. All persons have a very different character, the only thing that links them is their father and so everyone pursues another aim. Sylvette wants the money. Sophie doesn´t know, what she should think about all that. Susan wants to find out, if cruelty can be inherited and Sandro wants to forget all this. All these episodes are mixed to a really funny and crazy story!

A complete mess

[hcaraso · 12 August 2002]

I was driven to watch this stupidity by a completely false review in a TV magazine. Although I had already been disappointed with Tonie Marshall's previous appearances or directions, I chose to see it because of Jean Yanne, who is one of my favorite actors. It took three countries (France, Belgium and Switzerland), six production outfits, two national sponsors and gratuities from Danielle Darrieux, Claudia Cardinale and Gena Rowlands, to raise enough money for this stupidity. Jean Yanne must have been in awful need of dollars to accept his few lightning appearances - although the part suited him perfectly - in such a badly conceived and directed movie. The only light in this darkness was the brief appearance of Mapi (Maria Pia? Marie-Pierre?) Galàn, in the first minutes of this movie. I see from her IMDB filmography that she can be seen in quite a lot of films, wish I could see that wonderful woman again. I am told that Tonie Marshall did a good job with her last production, VENUS BEAUTE, and I see she's got another on the way. I sincerely don't want to watch neither of the two. Most of the actors, however, including Yanne, Baye, Cluzet and Anémone, were at their best.Except Molly Ringwald: I see she has her bunch of fans, count me out, please. harry carasso, paris, france

A waste of time

[pat-797-869015 · 2/10 · 28 September 2019]

The scenario is as thin as cigarette paper, it's neither funny nor realistic. The performers are all good actresses and good actors, but here they don't believe in what they're playing so they all play like potatoes. This film disappointed me deeply. The most ridiculous thing is when Anémone thinks she can imitate Sylvie Vartan!

Family Matters (So They Say)

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 28 February 2005]

Until someone else posts a comment this one is going to tip the balance in favor of Tonie Marshall's minor gem. I accept the right of the first poster to be negative and it is possible that the film touched a nerve and/or he/she saw it on a bad day. Whatever this IS a great black comedy, trust me, I'm a doctor. It may well have been the ending in which Marshall has the siblings dancing on their father's coffin in the cemetery that influenced Daniele Thompson to OPEN her own dysfunctional family entry, La Buche, in a cemetery, though Thompson confined the black humor to the verbal kind. We begin with a great premise. Jean Yanne, who distributes his seed liberally and indiscriminately, finds himself in court facing a count of Murder One. Four of his siblings who have never met him or each other read about the case, turn up in court and realize their connection. When the siblings in question are Anemone, Nathalie Baye, Francois Cluzet and American Molly Ringwald (presumably to illustrate how FAR Yanne spread his seed) we can rest easy knowing that Class is Alive and Well in the Acting Department. After the initial meeting/realization it's just a case of inhibitions being removed and catalysts doing their work. In his orneriness Yanne wants to leave his loot to yet a fifth sibling from SOUTH America yet but, having seen him off, the quartet proceed to induce a heart attack in Yanne by describing how they KILLED their half-brother and this leads to the climactic scene in the cemetery when, in an effort to get a quart into a pint pot (the grave is not quite large enough to accept the coffin, you really had to be there) the quartet mount the coffin and literally kick it into the place where it will do the most good. Slightly brilliant.