Le Derrière (1999) - film review

After the death of her mother, Frédérique resolves to find her father, whom she has never met.  She discovers the identity of her father on the back of an old photograph and sets out for Paris where he now lives.  She is staying with some gay friends when she is persuaded to dress up as a gay man so that she can accompany them to a gay club. Frédérique later uses the same disguise when she discovers that her father is gay and is living with a younger, black man, hoping that her father will be more likely to accept a lost gay son than a lost straight daughter.  To complicate matters, Frédérique is simultaneously dating her boyfriend...

Having established herself as a popular and talented actress (probably best known for her role in the 1993 film Les Visiteurs) Valérie Lemercier turned to directing with this entertaining light comedy, in which she also, appropriately, took the leading role.

The film is as much about Frédérique’s search for her own identity as her search for her missing father.  In her dual quest,  Frédérique must undergo a frantic series of changes of identity, alternating between an attractive young woman and a camp young man, in her attempt to please her father and her boyfriend.

The film intelligently reveals the folly of traditional prejudices towards gay men, and also towards women, and manages to end with a convincing albeit trite finale (Frédérique’s own show-stopping "coming-out" session) which basically says people should always be what they are and not try to be something they are not.

Although this is a fair directoral debut for Lemercier, the film is not without its faults.  The comedy, whilst natural and quite amusing in places, often feels contrived and stale.  Some of the stereotypes are just a little too familiar and some of the jokes too hackneyed (the socks down the underpants gag, for example).  Sympathetic performances from Claude Rich as the cultivated gay man and Dieudonné as his unlikely partner help to compensate for this, but the film’s lack of direction and faltering ending is all too apparent and mar what is otherwise an entertaining and well-constructed film.

© James Travers 2001

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