Venise n'est pas en Italie (2019)
Directed by Ivan Calbérac

Film Review

Since his first feature Irène (2001), director Ivan Calbérac has charmed audiences with an engaging brand of lowkey cinema that, whilst varied and quirky always, remains honestly centred on human relationships.  On va s'aimer (2006) and Une semaine sur deux (et la moitié des vacances scolaires) (2009) may not be great works of cinema but they offer authentic slices of life that reveal a filmmaker of no mean sensitivity and intelligence.  For his latest film, Venise n'est pas en Italie, Calbérac adapts his 2015 novel of the same title, which he has recently made into a successful stage play.  Previously, he adapted another of his plays for the cinema as L'Étudiante et Monsieur Henri (2015).

Venise n'est pas en Italie is one of those high-energy feel-good holiday movies that tends to attract reasonably sized audiences in France during the estival months.  Part road movie, part social satire, it presents us with the most eccentric family in France as they wend their way across the country, suffering mishap after mishap and looking increasing like escaped characters from a children's comic book.  The film obviously thinks it is a great deal funnier than it really is, and whatever charm and humour it has are well and truly dissipated by the mid-point.  After that, it becomes just yet another tedious and joyless holiday time-killer.

With actors of the calibre of Benoît Poelvoorde and Valérie Bonneton on board, it's hard to see how the film could have failed.  For once, Poelvoorde's penchant for playing goofy eccentrics eludes him, thanks mainly to a script that presents him less as a real human being and more as a slightly offensive caricature of a humble caravan dweller.  The rest of the cast fair no better and, lacking Poelvoorde's capacity to at least make us smile from time to time, they soon lose whatever good will we might have had towards them.  Judging by the standard of humour on offer, it looks as if the film was intended for children under the age of 14.  Ivan Calbérac deserves some credit for trying something different but, with his imagination and comic flair both visibly failing him, it's hard to be impressed by his latest attempt to woo the mainstream.

Film Synopsis

The Chamodots are a most unusual family.  Home for them is a modest caravan, parked in the suburbs of Montargis in northern France.  The father and mother, Bernard and Annie, are a pair of free-spirited eccentrics.  Émile is their 14-year-old son, who shows a talent for maths.  He is in love with Pauline, but she comes from a much higher stratum of society, being the daughter of an internationally renowned musician.  One day, Bernard and Annie decide to undertake the long road journey to Italy for a holiday and a long-delayed honeymoon.  When he hears of this, Émile is overtaken by excitement and promptly invites Pauline to join them.  To his surprise, she accepts willingly.  What ensues is a crazy road journey full of surprises...