Liberté-Oléron (2001)

Liberté-Oléron is a French film comedy first released in 2001, directed by Bruno Podalydès.  The film stars Denis Podalydès, Guilaine Londez, Patrick Pineau, Arnaud Jalbert and Ange Ruzé.  It has also been released under the title: Freedom-Oléron.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Jacques is determined to make the most of his summer holidays on the island of Oléron.  His wife Albertine may be content to lounge around on the beach and dream of ways to improve their second home, but he is a man of action and intends to make this an adventure that he and his four children will remember for the rest of their lives.  He fulfils this ambition, but not in quite the way he intended.  When his youngest son loses his toy submarine in the sea, Jacques makes up his mind to buy a small sail boat so that he can take his family to the island of Aix, just five kilometres away.  Duped by an unscrupulous boat dealer, what Jacques ends up with is a second-hand rust bucket that is barely seaworthy.  Undeterred by a few minor setbacks, such as discovering that his new motor is defective, Jacques embarks on his grand adventure.  Isn’t it strange how holidays almost always end in disaster?

Bruno Podalydès’ second feature - after the charming romantic comedy Dieu seul me voit (1998) - is a deliciously tongue-in-cheek satire on that most hallowed of French institutions, the family summer holiday.  Once again, Podalydès’ brother Denis plays the lead role, another middle-aged neurotic that seems to lie somewhere between Mr Bean and Jacques Tati.  The central character is a middle-aged father who takes his leisure activities a little too seriously, so seriously in fact that he comes within a hair’s breadth of killing himself and his entire family.  We all the know the type - the manically hyperactive 30-something who, have missed his vocation to be a sports instructor or paratrooper in the SAS, consoles himself by making every holiday feel like a stint of national service.  As Jacques’ idée fixe takes hold and gradually transforms a peaceful holiday by the sea into a near approximation of a disaster movie, the spectator is uncertain whether to choke with laughter or start a campaign to have irresponsible parents lobotomised.  

Liberté-Oléron is the Podalydès brothers’ most inspired and enjoyable film to date, and whilst their portrayal of the average French family does veer somewhat towards outlandish caricature, the film nonetheless feels distinctly true to life.  Denis Podalydès may come across as the biggest threat to children since King Herod, but it is surprisingly easy to sympathise with his character as, despite his best intentions, his holiday turns into a re-enactment of The Poseidon Adventure.  Generally, cinema’s representations of the family are seldom convincing - if they are not drenched in lovey-dovey sentimentality of the most toe-curling variety they are cruel black comedies that look as if were conceived to put you off parenthood for life.  The Podalydès brothers’ film lies comfortably between these two extremes; despite its heavily ironic tone and healthy dollops of dark humour, Liberté-Oléron is an affectionate tribute to the resilience of the family unit.

© James Travers 2011

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