Les Portes de la gloire (2001) - film review

Régis Demanet is the leader of a team of door-to-door salesmen who stalk the streets of northern French towns trying to coerce undiscerning householders into buying a bogus encyclopaedia.  Forty-something Demanet is in the midst of a mid-life crisis and is desperate to make something of his life.  Seeing himself as Colonel Nicholson in the film Bridge on the River Kwai, he has a dream – to build an empire of salesmen using aggressive American sales techniques in the South of France.  Unfortunately, his boss, Paul Beaumont, refuses to takes his ideas seriously.   When Jérôme Le Tallec, Beaumont’s future son-in-law, joins his team, Régis sees an opportunity to realise his dream...

Christian Merret-Palmair’s first full length film, Les Portes de la gloire is a bizarre black comedy that offers both a tragicomic depiction of mid-life crisis and an unusual variation on the road movie concept, with more than a hint of social realism.  It is easy to pick holes in the script and the direction, which both show an obvious lack of finesse, but such flaws are more than compensated for by the excellent contributions from a talented ensemble cast.  Benoît Poelvoorde is particularly memorable as the Team Leader from Hell, managing to be hilarious one moment, oozing pathos by the bucketload the next, and his attempts to parody Alec Guinness in a certain David Lean film get funnier as the film progresses.  All of the characters are well-drawn and convicingly played, especially Jérôme – sensitively portrayed by Julien Boisselier – a man who manages to be more gauche than Paris’ Left Bank, at least until his indoctrination into the black art of salesmanship is complete.  A deliciously dark and witty comedy.

© James Travers 2009

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