TRES BIEN, MERCI

http://www.gemini-films.com/versionfrancaise/gemini_filmsfr.htm
plot : A series of unfortunate évènements.
thought : So it isn't just me ?

After a week-and-a-half hiatus of film watching, I choose to revive my cinephilia with...a French film ? What was I thinking ? Well, given it was a jour feriée (holiday), and everything else was sold out, me, I was thinking, "in or away ?" And I went in, expecting a shitty, boring French film.

For the first fifteen to thirty silent, mumbling, brain-numbingly eventless minutes, I was right. But everything following that, I must say, proved to me that I had pegged Emmanuelle CUAU, our director and screenwriter, wrong. Sure, it's "typical" French movie fare--funded by the CNC (Centre Nationale de Cinématographie) and lacking in any real purposeful trajectory (and did I mention the mumbling ?). But in all, this story which weaves around one guy's unusual, mostly accidental run-in with the police, is attractive, because you can't help but realise, "This could happen to me," or--give or take a hospital stay and insert, perhaps, a visit to the French Préfecture--"This HAS happened to me." Ever heard of the French "fonctionnaire" ? Basically the over-glorified secretary who gets in the way and gets nothing done ? Well, apparently, the French are pissed at him, too. All the giggles I heard in the cinéma couldn't be lying.

Kudos to Sandrine KIBERLAIN (Béatrice) and Gilbert MELKI (Alex) for somehow being a believable on-screen French couple. Random, but true. And kudos as well to the preview for BUENOS AIRES 1977 that showed before this movie. Naked football palyers. Looks super. Though kind of sad that TRES BIEN, MERCI really had no music. Except if you count that annoying Mozart concerto with all the chirping birds that plays in the taxi.

Best shot : Alex (MELKI) in his prison cell at the slammer. Minimalist set decoration in jail.

Overall rating : 3.5/5 (though apparently French spectators don't agree)