Camping is a French film comedy first released in 2006, directed by Fabien Onteniente.  The film stars Gérard Lanvin, Mathilde Seigner, Franck Dubosc, Claude Brasseur and Mylène Demongeot.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Every August for the last thirty years, Jacky and Laurette Pic have spent their summer holiday near the same stretch of French coast, pitching their caravan in exactly the same spot in the same camp site, Les Flots Bleus.  Imagine then their incredulity when, one year, they arrive to find that, owing to a computer malfunction, the pitch they have always taken has been allocated to another couple, and a Dutch couple at that!  Meanwhile, at the other end of the social spectrum, plastic surgeon Michel Saint-Josse is on his way to Spain where he hopes to spend a stress-free holiday in a luxury hotel with his teenage daughter Vanessa.  When his car breaks down near Les Flots Bleus, Michel accepts the offer of help from one of the campers, an extrovert gigolo named Patrick Chirac, the kind of man who regards every woman as his own personal plaything.  Whilst their car is being repaired, Michel and Vanessa agree to stay in Patrick’s well proportioned tent, not knowing that, thanks to a series of mishaps, it will be their home for several days...

Camping is the latest in a seemingly interminable line of films that attempt to make light of the one thing the French take more seriously than just about anything (except food): their summer holidays.  Of course, this sub-genre, if one can call it that, includes some well-loved classics, notably Patrice Leconte’s Les Bronzés (1978) and Philippe Harel’s Les Randonneurs (1997), but the majority seem to come and go like a not very memorable summer holiday, albeit without the aggravation and child vomit.   Whilst it has its charms and an attractive cast, Fabien Onteniente’s humorous take on the familiar saga of sand, sea and stress probably belongs to the latter category.  With too many characters, most of whom are thinly developed caricatures, too few decent jokes and very little in the way of originality, Camping is a pretty anodyne affair that engages but doesn’t really leave much of a lasting impression.

© filmsdefrance.com 2008

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