Coluche, l’histoire d’un mec (2008) - film review

In 1980, Coluche is one of the most popular comic performers in France.  He attracts the size of audience other comedians can only dream of, be it on stage, on television or on the radio.  Often, his distinctive comedy has an acute political slant – he lampoons politicians and the inability of France to resolve its social problems.  One day, a friend of his suggests that he should go into politics.  Coluche accepts the challenge readily and, to the astonishment of everyone, he puts himself forward as a candidate in the up and coming French presidential elections.  Even he is surprised at the level of support he receives from ordinary French people.  He might even end up winning...

The main shortcoming of this well-intended but ultimately vacuous account of Coluche’s participation in the 1981 French presidential election is that it fails spectacularly to shed any light on the complex character of its central protagonist.   Rather, it appears happy to reduce Coluche to a simplistic caricature that is not far-removed from his stage persona.  This is not to fault François-Xavier Demaison’s creditable portrayal of the great humorist, which if nothing else is as good an imitation as we can expect.  Instead, the fault lies with Diastème’s shallow hotchpotch of a screenplay and Antoine de Caunes’s painfully self-conscious direction, which together virtually strangle the interest value out of a fascinating episode in French politics and prevent us from getting anywhere near the man who was at the heart of it.  The film’s ugly cinema-vérité-lite design was presumably intended to give it a documentary feel but this just provides another barrier between the spectator and the film’s subject.  Coluche, l’histoire d’un mec lacks both narrative coherence and character depth, and is a pretty soulless endeavour - a vulgar and lacklustre tribute to the man it depicts.

© filmsdefrance.com 2011

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?