Bouquet final (2008)
Directed by Michel Delgado

Film Review

It's an odd thing but black comedy is a comparatively rare phenomenon in French cinema.  Unlike their English cousins, French cinemagoers always seem to have had an innate aversion to comic treatments of the more macabre aspects of life, and this could go some way to explaining why, when it was released in 2008, Michel Delgado's debut feature Bouquet final met with a decidedly frigid (if not downright funereal) reception from critics and audiences.  Somehow the French sensibility isn't sufficiently developed to see the funny side of a corpse sitting up to watch a succession of Benny Hill videos or a full-throttle car chase across Paris in a hearse.  Dommage.

Bouquet final deserves some of the criticism that has been directed at it.  It suffers from many of the weaknesses we have come to expect from a directorial first bash (uneven tempo, some over-cautious mise-en-scène, the occasional longueur) but none of this prevents it from being fun and, in places, uproariously hilarious.  The film's main failing is that it tries to cram far too much into too small a space, and some of the numerous story strands - particularly the half-baked digression into romantic-comedy - merely end up as tedious distractions from the main event, which is a non-stop barrage of gags revolving around undertakers and their mysterious trade.  Delgado's idea of humour is far more British than French, albeit with a tinge of Gallic restraint which prevents the humour from becoming too gross and cartoonish.  An experienced screenwriter with over a decade's worth of credits to his name, Delgado adeptly avoids caricature and creates some memorable, well-developed characters that allow the film to keep at least one foot in reality and prevent it from becoming just another madcap farce.

The chalk-and-cheese pairing of Didier Bourdon (7 ans de mariage) and Marc-André Grondin (Bus Palladium) is inspired to the point of genius and provides Bouquet final with its main asset: a classic double act.  Not only are Bourdon and Grondin very capable actors, they also have a natural flair for comedy, and it is the contrast in their comic approaches that makes their double act so effective and so funny.  In the case of Bourdon, the comedy is all on the surface, a carefully constructed mask to conceal the tragic persona underneath.  Grondin is almost the opposite, his comedy far more spontaneous, almost accidental, arising from situation rather than character.  The clash of these wildly differing personas not only serves the script admirably it also allows for some superb comic interaction.  Does any of this help to demystify the darkest of professions and make it a more attractive career option?  That's for the spectator to decide.

If only Delgado had been brave enough to concentrate his attention on his two main protagonists, instead of introducing so many thinly sketched secondary characters, he would almost certainly have had a much better film, possibly a mainstream classic.  Alas, even with a supporting cast that includes the likes of Marthe Keller, Gérard Depardieu, Michel Galabru and rising star Bérénice Bejo (Jean Dujardin's partner in The Artist), the film just feels overloaded with undeveloped and distracting minor characters.  Fortunately, the Bourdon-Grondin partnership works so well that this is a tolerable flaw and there are enough formaldehyde-scented gags in the engine of this coffin-laden comedy juggernaut to keep it going through its aimless plot meanderings.  And it's nice to see that Benny Hill is still remembered with affection in France, entertaining the dead as well as the living.

Film Synopsis

Unbeknown to his anti-bourgeois beatnik parents, who had hoped that, like them, he might pursue an artistic career, Gabriel opts to become an undertaker.  He is thrilled to be taken on as a commercial director for an American firm of funeral directors, but before he can begin his job proper he must first complete a three month apprenticeship with an experienced member of this noble profession in Paris.  Gervais Brion is the lucky man tasked with showing Gabriel the ropes, a dour forty-something whose bedside manner and evident lack of tact leave a great deal to be desired.

A practicing mortician for over twenty years, Gervais has long become inured to handling the bodies of the dead, and this has made him somewhat insensitive to his paying customers.  At first, the diffident apprentice and his complacent instructor have difficulty seeing eye to eye but gradually they begin to warm to one another.  They even get to share some moments of hilarity, watching Benny Hill videos at a wake.  Meanwhile, Gabriel is determined to keep his profession from his girlfriend Claire, fearing how she will react to his morbid line of work.  All is well until he arranges a funeral for an old man, Monsieur Froissard, who happens to be Claire's grandfather.  This is the point at which Gabriel's life becomes very complicated.  Strangely, romance and embalming are not the easiest of bedfellows...