Bonjour l’angoisse (1988) - film review

Michaud is a timid 50-something who works for Stopalarm, a company that specialises in high-tech alarm systems.  Despite his 32 years of loyal service, Michaud is threatened with early retirement.  The irony is that if he were to be dismissed he would be the last person to complain.  Despite his agile mind, Michaud is one of life’s natural fall guys, ready to accept criticism, unable to stand up for himself - in short, one of life’s losers.  He is taunted constantly by the reflection of himself that he sees in the mirror, his confident alter ego who goads him to be more assertive and self-interested.  When Michaud finds himself implicated in a robbery at a Parisian bank, whose alarm systems could only have been disabled by a Stopalarm employee, he has no choice but to come out of his shell and go on the offensive...

Bonjour l’angoisse is the last of four off-beat comedies directed by Pierre Tchernia and featuring the incomparable Michel Serrault in a role that allows him to perform at his comedic best.  In common with the three preceding Tchernia-Serrault collaborations - Le Viager (1972), Les Gaspards (1974) and La Gueule de l’autre (1979) - this film offers an appealing mix of satire and off-the-wall humour with a distinct surreal edge to it.  The film doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its superb pre-credits sequence - a very cheeky send-up of the old American gangster film - but Serrault’s presence alone is enough to get us through the ensuing ninety minutes of low-key comedy and keep us mildly entertained if not rolling in the aisles.  Oddly, most of the film is a set-up for the hilarious comic denouement which romps through just about every alarm system-related gag known to man.  The punchline is a long time coming, but it is well worth waiting for.

The film certainly offers an impressive cast.  As well as Michel Serrault, Tchernia managed to rope in three other notable acting talents - Guy Marchand, Pierre Arditi and Jean-Pierre Bacri - all of whom went on to become major stars of French cinema in the following decade.  These three play the familiar corporate stereotypes - the bootlicking careerist, the stressed out executive and the unscrupulous crook - and give great value in doing so.  Despite this plethora of talent, Serrault still manages to steal the show, not just because he is the master of understated comedy but because he gets to play two characters - a miserably self-effacing stooge and his mirror image (in every sense of the term).  Through some imaginative and highly effective use of split screen, the film gives us a double dose of Serrault, who has no difficulty delineating his two characters (although Tchernia helps out by giving them a different coloured scarf).  Whilst Michel Serrault won greater acclaim for his dramatic roles - such as the suspected child killer in Claude Miller’s Garde à vue (1981), Bonjour l’angoisse reminds us of his versatility and innate flair for comedy.  There is a delightful Tati-esque humane quality to his portrayal in this film, which is far easier to stomach than his outrageously over-the-top camp creation in La Cage aux folles (1978).

© James Travers 2010

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