La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille (1988) - film review

When she breaks up with her boyfriend, a paediatric surgeon, a nurse reveals that, twelve years ago, she switched two babies just after their birth.  One of the babies belongs to a wealthy middle-class family, the other to a poor family living on a housing estate.  When the families learn the news, the poorer family agrees to hand over their son to the other, for a fee.  The new arrival in the middle-class family soon begins to upset their calm bourgeois life-style...

The beauty of this film lies not in its plot (which is as old as the hills) or the quality of the acting (which is good, but not exceptional) – but in its use of typically French humour.

The film begins by contrasting two completely different families.  There is first the contented, bourgeois family, where children dutifully obey their parents and sing happy-clappy songs beside their church minister.  Then there is the poor family living in a cramped flat, subsisting off benefits – the father is bitter and crude, the mother is vulgar, and the children undisciplined louts.  Both families are equally repulsive and equally comic.  Then something happens – both families have a child which does not belong to them.  The poor family is quick to capitalise on the situation whilst the rich family see this as a chance to do some moral good.

Although the film veers dangerously close to caricature, it is nonetheless an entertaining and perceptive satire on modern society.  The humour is very much tongue-in-cheek but is nonetheless very effective.  The films works because it conforms to our simple-minded view of the world – certainly our view of how the upper middle classes and lower lower classes live – and plays with our expectations and assumptions.

This is not a profound film, and the ending is a little lame, but it has some deliciously funny moments and, overall, it is a delicious piece of satire.

© James Travers 2000

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