Twisted and really fun
Here we have
Blanche Gardin one of the best standups in modern-day France paired up with the ultimate passive-aggressive darling writer of the contemporary French literary firmament
Michel Houellebecq; he is hilarious here as he was in
Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq (2014) and
Thalasso (2019). When i saw some bright spark
Guillaume Nicloux same director as previous 2 now seen as a trilogy had linked those 2 in a film i jumped at the opportunity of seeing the results and was truly not disappointed
This is dry humour at its best; laced with psychedelia (DMT/MDMA etc) plays a part here as well as surrealism; low-level insanity in a cocktail of Ubuesque happenings and set in Guadeloupe bringing in mock elements of colonialism, musings on racism; which start in Paris before they even get there with an elderly white woman
Françoise Lebrun who was so brilliant all those years ago in
The Mother and the Whore (1973) with her hugely tall Black nephew; and their remarks on the fact that he is unexpected as a nephew since so tall ... not mentioning race
The story is articulated around a lookalike competition of
Michel Houellebecq which is farcical as the lookalikes really do not .... I mean really not
The disparate elements are weaved elegantly and you come away from this chortling to yourself
- Best line for me was Blanche Gardin remarking on the fact that the White inbred farmer-settlers on the hill were "en train de fabriquer des trisomiques dans les collines" producing (as in factory) down syndromes in the hills; also the driver of the limo who insisted on speaking Guadeloupean Patois to the Parisians knowing well they could not understand a single word
So it subtly mocks colonial setups which the French still have around the World ie New Caledonia Guadeloupe Martinique French Guiana Reunion etc etc but then again that is just one of the strands here
THis is intelligent humour here; and with
Blanche Gardin Michel Houellebecq Françoise Lebrun Jean-Pascal Zadi Luc Schwarz one would not expect less
Highly recommended to folks who like their humour twisted surreal and a smidgeon dark.
