Film Review
La Cité de la peur marks the big screen
début for one of France's most popular comedy teams, Les Nuls
- Alain Chabat, Chantal Lauby and Dominique Farrugia - who achieved
celebrity through their regular appearances on the French TV channel, Canal+ in the 1980s
and early 1990s.
Les Nuls's anarchic, often surreal brand of comedy may not be to everyone's
taste, but they retain a prominent place in French culture and
La
Cité de la peur has all that it takes to be a cult film.
Beginning with a spoof horror sequence (which is hilarious, brilliantly wrong-footing
the spectator), the film rapidly becomes a parody of the American mystery horror film,
with abundant references to many films of the genre from the 1980s. Although far
from subtle, the comedy is highly effective, and even when the jokes are in very bad taste
it is hard not to laugh out loud and enjoy everything that gets thrown in our face.
An actor who throws up whenever he is happy and a bodyguard with serious diarrhoeic problems
illustrate the level of humour the film descends to for laughs, but a well-paced script
and some ebullient performances make up for it in the end.
After this wacky big screen adventure, Les Nuls returned a few years later with
a slightly more down to Earth film,
Didier (1997),
in which Alain Chabat gets in touch with his inner canine and ended up winning a César.
Then there was
Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002),
but that's another story...
© James Travers 2005
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Alain Berbérian film:
Paparazzi (1998)
Film Synopsis
Odile Deray, press secretary responsible for promoting the low budget horror film “Red
is Dead”, hires a security agent, Serge Karamazov, to protect the film's star,
Simon Jérémi, during the Cannes Film Festival. The film becomes a
sensation when, during each of its showings, the projectionist is murdered in exactly
the same way as in the film - by a hooded stranger with a hammer and sickle.
The debonair Commissaire Bialès is assigned to the case, but Odile quickly discovers
that he may be the killer...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.