Les Cachetonneurs (1998) - film review

Roberto, a freelance musician, agrees to give a New Year’s Eve concert of chamber music and Viennese waltzes at an aristocrat’s château in Normandy.  He assembles a sextet of musicians from his friends, but soon realises he has problems.  His flutist, Thérèse, is nine months’ pregnant and might give birth at any moment; his cellist, Lionel, is a kleptomaniac; is viola player, Martial is hypersensitive and flares up whenever the mood takes him; his violist, Diana, has an inferiority complex; and his clarinettist cannot read a note of music.   To make matters worse, the conductor, Svarowski, has yet to turn up...

Les Cachetonneurs is a pleasing low-key comedy which, whilst somewhat unpolished and sluggardly in places, offers an amusing portrait of a band of disparate musicians who have to freelance to practice their art.  It is the first full length film from director Denis Dercourt, himself a classical musician who teaches at the Strasbourg Music Conservatory. Dercourt’s inexperience as a director is more than made up by the sense of authenticity that his experience as a musician brings to the film.

Most of the pleasure of the film lies in the increasingly strained relationships between the characters.  As personal problems and bitter enmities drive them apart, it is their love of music which somehow keeps them together.  In capturing the commitment and camaraderie between a group of very individualistic musicians, the film is at its most revealing and engaging.

Les Cachetonneurs includes a number of talented, relatively unknown, young actors who, from their performances in this film, clearly look set for better things. Pierre Lacan and Marie-Christine Laurent are certainly two names to watch out for.

© James Travers 2001

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