Cote D’Azur
The oddest little film, this one. On the one hand it is a sort of French bedroom farce from the sixties but with a greater liberty and plenty of gays. On the other hand it has a style of filming with hand held cameras that is more like today. To top it all off, we have two song and dance numbers that defy description – the worst type of Franch musical kitsch a la 60’s. Despite all that and thanks to a large suspension of belief, the film is quite enjoyable. At the centre is the luminous free spirit of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi as mother, wife and lover who doesn’t really care what people do as long as they worship at the altar of free love and feel good. Gilbert Melki is the slightly uptight husband and then we have the long-haired typically French adolescent son, Charly who may or may not be gay, because Martin his best friend, is .... lots of misunderstandings with this.
Later along comes the plumber (Jean-Marc Barr) who is linked to one of the family in surprising ways. There is a running gag to do with cold showers, lots of coming and going with cellphones .... everything you would expect from a farce. It almost works as a nostalgia piece and does give you laughs and is watchable. Bruni-Tedeschi and Barr lift the film whenevr they appear and the boys are quite acceptable in their scenes.
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