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.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.