Film Review
Is there anything more sacred to the French than their summer holidays?
The annual ritual begins and ends with the motorway journey from Hell when
just about every car owner in France hits the road and turns every square
each of tarmac into a killing field. In between, there are two weeks
of unalloyed misery during which our happy holidaymakers get roasted alive
in the sun, stung to death by mosquitoes, food-poisoned every other
day, fleeced by every crook within ten kilometres of a holiday resort, and
driven to the limits of sanity by their entourage of constantly unsatisfied
and endlessly screaming kids. It's the kind of thing that makes an
eternity in Hell appear like a blessed relief, and the only logical reason
why the French subject themselves to this fortnight of excruciating torment
every year is that it provides a kind of limbering up exercise for the afterlife.
Not only are the French addicted to their annual two weeks of self-inflicted martyrdom,
they are equally incapable of resisting films that remind them how horrible
holidays are.
Ces sacrées vacances was one of the first
films of this kind, and it has been followed ever since by similar nightmarish
visions that delight in reminding us that there is nothing that humanity
has so far devised which is anywhere near as ghastly as the family
summer holiday.
The film is based on a novel by Anne Drouet and was directed by Robert Vernay,
the year after he had a notable hit with the comedy
Sur le banc (1955). Although
Vernay helmed a number of comedies, he is best remembered today for his lavish
period dramas, notably
Le
Comte de Monte Cristo (1943) and
Le Père Goriot (1945).
Ces sacrées vacances is one of Vernay's least memorable films,
and were it not for the presence of so many notable comedy performers in
its cast (Jean Tissier, Jean Carmet, Paulette Dubost, Henri Génès,
Pauline Carton, Darry Cowl), it would probably have been forgotten long,
long ago.
The comicbook escapades of an average family enduring the most disastrous
holiday imagimable ensure that the film has limited entertainment value to
discerning adults and appear to be targeted more at an easily pleased child
audience. The fact that the same formula has been repeated endlessly
since makes
Ces sacrées vacances appear more dated and
pedestrian than it probably is, although a few of the gags just about manage
to extract a laugh (albeit with as much finesse as a dentist extracting a
molar with a croquet mallet). It's mostly a tepid collation of all
the things that can go wrong on a typical holiday, but it still manages to
be more palatable than the even more facile films of its ilk that came along
subsequently. It's a strange thing that this kind of film always tend
to do well at the French box office. If there's one thing the French
love more than holidays from Hell, it is films about holidays from Hell.
© James Travers 2016
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
The long-awaited summer vacation upon them, the Pinsons can hardly wait to
embark on their camping holiday on the Riviera. Georges Pinson, a modest
ceramicist, manages to scrape together enough money to buy an old second-hand
car and he and his wife Claudette are soon enjoying the open road, with their
two adorable little children happily whining their heads off in the backseat.
Georges is not the kind of man to let a roadster as clapped out as his own
to overtake him, so the pleasant drive soon turns into a manic road duel.
Once they reach the coast, the Pinsons cannot find anywhere to spend the
night, so they end up in a room above a rowdy night club. Things do
not improve when they finally get to the camp site. Having managed
to set fire to a forest and a house, the Pinsons find themselves blacklisted
from every camp site in the area, and then they end up be mistaken for jewel
thieves. The fact that Georges has a large sum of money in his pocket,
because he has just sold his graffiti-covered car to a wealthy American,
counts against him, at least in the eyes of the policemen who promptly arrest
him and his family. Miraculously, the holiday turns out well in the
end...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.