I picked this film up in a French gas station promotion several years ago and watch it from time to time. The film drips nostalgia....I'd almost expect Gabin or Fernandel to appear as it unfolds. And in a way you do see them - Michel Serrault (adieu), Suzanne Flon - their presence evokes French cinema of yore. Others evoke the classic French cinema of today - Villeret and Dussollier the consummate journeymen. This ensemble plays against scenarios which are uniquely French: the naif love of American jazz, living off the land's bounty (snails, mayday bouquets, and frog fishing - the only time you'll ever see this in a film), and a complex social order which is both egalitarian and stratified.
While the nostalgia is thick, reality is in easy view....the marsh becomes a site for a hypermarche. For me that's just another layer of nostalgia, though - part of the memory of living there for a short time. The last time I visited, even the gas station giveaways were gone. France is ever changing, yet somehow remains the same.
While the nostalgia is thick, reality is in easy view....the marsh becomes a site for a hypermarche. For me that's just another layer of nostalgia, though - part of the memory of living there for a short time. The last time I visited, even the gas station giveaways were gone. France is ever changing, yet somehow remains the same.