On a très peu d'amis (1998)
Directed by Sylvain Monod

Film Review

Sylvain Monod had amassed an impressive set of credits as a production manager (on such diverse films as Laurence Ferreira Barbosa's Les Gens normaux n'ont rien d'exceptionnel (1993), Philippe Garrel's Le Coeur fantôme (1996) and Lucas Belvaux's Pour rire! (1996)) before he embarked on a career as a film director with this somewhat muddled comedy. Perhaps the most significant thing about On a très peu d'amis is that it gave Mathieu Amalric, the darling of the film auteur, one his first comedic roles, not long after he had had his big screen breakthrough in Arnaud Desplechin's Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) (1996). Here, Amalric is effectively partnered with Michel Vuillermoz, the duo forming one of those memorable chalk-and-cheese double acts which French cinema seems to abound in. The film is a somewhat scrappy affair which lacks both coherence and a clear direction of travel, the narrative essentially being just a string of improbable situations which get less funny as the film progresses. The abrupt shift in focus in the last third of the film, away from the two principal characters, is hard to fathom and pretty well completes the job of audience alienation that Monod had all but accomplished by this point. It's basically a film that starts out well enough, offers a few easy laughs, but just gives up around the halfway stage.

Film Synopsis

Ivan and Serge are two friends who, having failed to make their fortune in Paris, head back to their home town of Aurillac without a sou to their name.  Encouraged by their old friends, they embark on a strange new career, entering dancing competitions and living on the pittance they manage to win in prize money.  All goes well until, one day, they run into a desperate armed crook named Richard, who is badly wounded after robbing a bank.

Ivan and Serge take pity on the injured man and agree to take him back with them to their home town, to be tended to by their friends.  The latter include Maxence, who agrees to set out for Lyon to fetch Richard's girlfriend Lucie.  Instead, Maxence meets up with his own lady friend, Evelyne, and, hearing that Richard has just died, decides to pass her off as Lucie.  This way, he hopes to grab himself a large share of the huge stack of cash that Richard stole and which, by rights, is now the property of his mistress...