This is a slightly disturbing film for a Francophile like me bearing as it does distinct overtones of intolerance for individual rights. Accountant Gilbert Melki, upright law-abiding citizen, in a stable ten-year marriage with cab-driver Sandrine Kiberlain is stopped my an official as he leaves the Metro smoking a cigarette - there's no suggestion that he was smoking ON the Metro itself or even on the platform; he is, in fact only a few metres from the street - and asked for I.D. Not unnaturally he bridles at this but threatened with the police he acquiesces. A short time later he sees police demanding I.D. in the street and pauses to watch. This doesn't sit well with the police who tell him to 'get lost'. When he persists in hanging around and explaining he is just watching he is arrested and spends a night in the cells without a blanket on a cold night. Released the next morning he asks to see an Inspector in order to complain, is thrown out unceremoniously and when he dares to return he winds up in a psychiatric hospital. It's difficult to know what the French Tourist Board would make of Manu Cau's film but it is certainly food for thought with top-of-the-line performances from Melki and Kiberlain, as you would expect. In fact everyone in this Kafkaesque world turns in fine performances though it's hard to envisage a target audience - it played at the London Film Festival but so far has no English distributor unlike some others that are already playing in London or will open tomorrow or in the next few weeks. My advice: Catch it if you can.
4 Reviews
Director Emmanuelle Cuau films difficult lives of two honest as well as simple people.
FilmCriticLalitRao20 October 2014
French film "Très Bien, Merci" discusses issues related to a family whose protagonists happen to lead a life without adventures. It is a frank yet brutal portrayal of hardships faced by an ordinary couple who decide not to buckle under pressure. Actors Gilbert Melki and Sandrine Kiberlain are doing good in their respective jobs. However, a minor incident on one Parisian metro changes their life forever. This is the beginning of a tough battle for individual rights involving an ordinary citizen and an arrogant French police. Emmanuelle Cuau questions the role of individual in a society which has decided to authorize extreme powers to some bodies which are governed by the state. Her film is instrumental in suggesting that there are times when the temptation to transform oneself from good to bad is very high. It is at that moment that many mistakes are made and failures observed. French director Emmanuelle Cuau specializes in making films about ordinary families and their extraordinary inner turmoil. In 1995, she made her feature film début with "Circuit Carole", a brilliant family story involving an oddball pair of a mother and her daughter. She made her loyal fans wait for eleven more years as "Tres Bien,Merci" got made in 2006.
Disturbing
johnpierrepatrick12 September 2020
This movie is quite disturbing, in different ways.
First its story. Far from the rest of movies that can be seen, it is a simple story, that could happen to anyone, and of an injustice that nobody's doing about. The system shows no mercy and the people behing follows the procedures.
In that, we have a political thriller very contemporary, very realistic of the way a lot people are reacting in their jobs (It isn't at the same scale but I guess anyone had already felt that feeling with administration, companies in charge of parking fines, etc.).
It is also disturbing because no answer is made whatsoever to this injustice. Nobody's trying to understand, trusting fully that the system is right and that if something happens, it is truly deserved. No need to even meet the man you're going to commit, by instance. And, contrary to the madhouse of The twelve tasks of Asterix, that madness is hidden, even the reactions of our main character stays confined. This absence of anger, of outburst was quite harsh on me, as this isn't a situation you can be ok for.
Finally, the movie shows in a second part, the effects it has on the main character and the path he has to take to overcome it. If I understand the aim in that, I think this was almost like another movie and did not display the same power. I was also wondering if the first part would not have been more impacting if we didn't see the start of the action in the movie beginning, letting doubt about legitimacy during a while.
You'll maybe ask why I didn't give it a better rating with all what I have said before, but I think that outside the story, this movie is less amazing. Acting is ok, no more. Directing is nothing special and I was definitely expecting more on that part. We even have some scenes that doesn't bring anything in my opinion.
It is also disturbing because no answer is made whatsoever to this injustice. Nobody's trying to understand, trusting fully that the system is right and that if something happens, it is truly deserved. No need to even meet the man you're going to commit, by instance. And, contrary to the madhouse of The twelve tasks of Asterix, that madness is hidden, even the reactions of our main character stays confined. This absence of anger, of outburst was quite harsh on me, as this isn't a situation you can be ok for.
Finally, the movie shows in a second part, the effects it has on the main character and the path he has to take to overcome it. If I understand the aim in that, I think this was almost like another movie and did not display the same power. I was also wondering if the first part would not have been more impacting if we didn't see the start of the action in the movie beginning, letting doubt about legitimacy during a while.
You'll maybe ask why I didn't give it a better rating with all what I have said before, but I think that outside the story, this movie is less amazing. Acting is ok, no more. Directing is nothing special and I was definitely expecting more on that part. We even have some scenes that doesn't bring anything in my opinion.
fine,thanks
dbdumonteil26 October 2014
My good friend Writer's Reign, a true connoisseur of the French cinema ,wrote the first review ,and as usual,I second all that he said.It's incredible that ,in 7 years ,no French user felt like sending a comment .
Writer's insists on what I would call a "prologue" ,taking place in the subway:this incident is the straw that breaks the camel's back for the hero is already paranoiac ,depressive and terribly stressed.
For a while I feared the incident on the street with the cops could lead the movie into the clichéd post -68 cinema territory:"cops are b.......";these policemen on the street have really a hard work to do ,they get stressed too,and the fact is that Alex is really a pain in the neck that night.The suicide rate is high in French police ,certainly higher than among accountants in suits.
But fortunately ,Emmanuelle Cuau put the whole French society on trial.In her movie,her characters belong to middle class,no wealth ,but no poverty either.In the hospital ,a woman asks Béatrice if she looks haunted ,then if she is red in the face ;in her taxi ,another one begins to talk about her shrink ,which infuriates her .
It goes to show that in-communicability is in the center of the movie;wherever it takes place,be it in the precinct ,in the mental hospital or during the job interviews ,it's like talking to a brick wall,in a Kafkaesque -as Leon wrote- world.
Reductio ad absurdum:it is when he cheats (the Mickey Mouse degrees which he got on his computer) that Alex learns the rules of the game ,that he becomes part of the "normal" society.It should be pointed out that the ending remains very ambiguous :is Alex in through the out door? Very well acted by the two principals ,and the secondary characters are extremely true to life.
Writer's insists on what I would call a "prologue" ,taking place in the subway:this incident is the straw that breaks the camel's back for the hero is already paranoiac ,depressive and terribly stressed.
For a while I feared the incident on the street with the cops could lead the movie into the clichéd post -68 cinema territory:"cops are b.......";these policemen on the street have really a hard work to do ,they get stressed too,and the fact is that Alex is really a pain in the neck that night.The suicide rate is high in French police ,certainly higher than among accountants in suits.
But fortunately ,Emmanuelle Cuau put the whole French society on trial.In her movie,her characters belong to middle class,no wealth ,but no poverty either.In the hospital ,a woman asks Béatrice if she looks haunted ,then if she is red in the face ;in her taxi ,another one begins to talk about her shrink ,which infuriates her .
It goes to show that in-communicability is in the center of the movie;wherever it takes place,be it in the precinct ,in the mental hospital or during the job interviews ,it's like talking to a brick wall,in a Kafkaesque -as Leon wrote- world.
Reductio ad absurdum:it is when he cheats (the Mickey Mouse degrees which he got on his computer) that Alex learns the rules of the game ,that he becomes part of the "normal" society.It should be pointed out that the ending remains very ambiguous :is Alex in through the out door? Very well acted by the two principals ,and the secondary characters are extremely true to life.
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