Film Review
A truly black comedy, this is a film that elevates vulgarity and bad taste - if
not to a fine art - to great comic effect at least. With on-screen vomiting,
endless fart jokes (done literally to death) and the amazing exploding toilet (the funniest
thing ever in French cinema?),
La grande bouffe must surely win anyone's
award for the most shamelessly vulgar example of mainstream French cinema. Yet,
in spite of that (or, perversely for that reason), this film has a strange melancholic
charm that makes it compelling viewing - even if, for most of the time, we are just
watching four fat middle-aged men stuffing their faces.
It is curious that the film does not explain why the four central characters want to kill
themselves - in fact this is only revealed one third of the way into the film.
Consequently, the viewer feels throughout that something is missing. Maybe this
is what lends the film its tragic dimension and makes the boorish vulgarity on display
somehow more tolerable. A very strange and disturbing film - but one with
some absolutely outrageous comic moments.
© James Travers 1999
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Film Synopsis
One winter, four well-off middle-aged men who have grown tired of life decide
to kill themselves. For Marcello, an Italian airline pilot with an
over-developed libido, life has become intolerable now that he is impotent.
A series of misunderstandings with his wife has led Ugo, a successful restaurateur,
to see death as an easy way out of his problems. After his divorce,
Michel, a radio presenter, finds modern life so excruciatingly dull that
it is scarcely worth living. And then there is a Philippe, a well-regarded
judge who lives a hermit-like existence with his nursemaid, an over-protective
old woman who prevents him from having relations with any other member of
the female sex.
Now that life has nothing left to offer them, the four friends agree that
they will all commit suicide by eating themselves to death. Philippe
has laid on a lavish banquet at his large isolated house on the outskirts
of Paris and the party is soon under way, with the four gastronomes merrily
gorging their way through course after course of the most sumptuous food
every prepared for a condemned man. When a schoolteacher named Andrea
turns up unexpectedly, she is invited to join the feast and, fascinated by
what she sees, she can hardly decline. Andrea's welcome presence awakens
in Marcello the need for female company, so a party of prostitutes is promptly
invited to the house to liven up the self-destructive orgy even more.
The prostitutes soon become disgusted by this exhibition of male debauchery
and make a quick exit, leaving the four bloated suicides to continue their
grotesque exhibition of bingeing and flatulence, with Andréa watching
on in morbid amusement. A sudden explosion of human waste from the
over-strained toilet adds to the hilarity of the situation. It isn't
long before the men's wish to shuffle off their mortal coil is granted.
Marcello is the first to depart, frozen to death in his car when he tries
to make a getaway in his vintage Bugatti. Michel's digestive system
then gives way under the excessive load that has been placed on it - not
a pleasant way to go. Ugo and Philippe are not far behind, but at least
they died indulging in their favourite pastime...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.