Recto / Verso (1999)

Recto / Verso is a French film comedy first released in 1999, directed by Jean-Marc Longval.  The film stars Smaïn, Michel Muller, Linda Hardy, Sophie Forte and Ronald Guttman.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Having lost his job as TV presenter, Fred begins to wonder if his career is over.  To save himself and his mother from bankruptcy, he is forced to accept a contract with a gay shopping channel.  The problem is that his new employer fancies him.  Fred’s only option is to persuade his cousin Joël to pretend to be his boyfriend – which complicates even further the chaotic love lives of all concerned.

Like the majority of gay-themed films made in the 1990s, this wacky French comedy now feels grotesquely caricatured and dated.   It stars Smaïn, a little-known actor who does little to engage the sympathy of his audience (his persona is that of a yuppie from the 1980s) – and indeed there is hardly a likeable character in the entire film, apart from Michel Muller’s downtrodden Fernandel-like Joël.   However, whilst the storyline is a mess, there are some decent jokes, even if the comic situations are by and large repetitive and a tad facile, relying far too heavily on the familiar gay stereotypes.

© James Travers 2007

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