Twist again à Moscou (1986) - film review

In 1984, some years before the fall of Communism, pop singer Tatiana tours Soviet Russia, accompanied by her boyfriend Iouri.  One of her concerts is stormed by the KGB, who are pursuing her father, a university professor charged with supporting a Jewish student.  Iouri turns to his brother-in-law, Igor Tataiev, the manager of a luxury hotel in Moscow, but his request for help falls on deaf ears.  Igor has his own problems, since his hotel is to be scrutinised by a single-minded apparatchik, Boris Pikov, who intends to report any sign of dissidence to his superiors.  At this point, who should appear but Iouri, Tatiana and the singer’s parents, with the KGB close on their heels.   For Igor Tataiev, the next few days will be the worst he has ever seen.  They might even be his last…

After Papy fait de la résistance (1983), an ebullient WWII satire on the French Resistance, director Jean-Marie Poiré decided to make a comedy about life on the other side of the iron curtain.  As the resulting film shows, he hit on another rich vein of comedy, with plenty of easy subjects for parodying – brutish KGB officers, self-important civil servants, self-serving bourgeoisie masquerading as loyal party members, etc.  Although the plot is a bit of a mess, it stands as one of Poiré’s most enjoyable films, thanks to its well-balanced cast – which includes such giants as Philippe Noiret and Bernard Blier at their comic best – and a constant stream of hilarious visual jokes.

The cinematography is of exceptional calibre for a film of this kind; the palate is largely limited to tones of white and grey, conveying both the raw beauty of the Russian landscape and also a real sense of the bleak life endured by many under Soviet rule.  Just as a good meal tastes far better when served on fine dinnerware, a comedy is all the more enjoyable when it is filmed in a way that pleases the eye and engages the soul.  Twist again à Moscou is one such film, a wholesome treat for any connoisseur of French comedy.

© James Travers 2006

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