With one exception ,a wonderful cast :Jacques Gamblin, as the failed romantic male lead;Jacques Villeret in one of his parts really worthy of himself;Gisele Casadesus as the old lady who is rather partial to taking snuff;Michel Serrault as a bourgeois,who,unlike his offspring,does not disown his past ;and as icing on the cake ,Suzanne Flon's voice over -she appears at the end of the movie but I knew it was her by the sound of her marvelous voice .André Dussolier is good as an idle dandy ,but with sometimes a tendency to hog the stage .
This may be a tribute to the old cinema of the thirties (particularly "La Belle Equipe" by Duvivier) and of his dad Jacques ("Casque D'Or") but there's no real plot ;it's rather a chronicle of a lazy life on the banks of the Loire,with its simple joys (the lily of the valley,the snails,the tyre which becomes a swing and a beautiful symbol of the ruthless passage of time in the last pictures). One can feel a certain misogyny -which was sometimes present in the French cinema of the thirties -: Villeret's wife is an ugly shrew,who never smiles,even to her children ;and Marie,the girl with whom Gamblin falls in love ,is only in search of a money match -but we are told ,when Gamblin leaves the place to never return ,that "she has not heard the last of him " . Male camaraderie indeed!
The weakest link is the unbearable "actor" Eric Cantona, but ,as his scenes are not really included in the main story ,if you watch the movie again,it's easy to skip them.
like this? try these .... "La Gloire De Mon Père" and "Le Château De Ma Mère" Yves Robert (1989)
This may be a tribute to the old cinema of the thirties (particularly "La Belle Equipe" by Duvivier) and of his dad Jacques ("Casque D'Or") but there's no real plot ;it's rather a chronicle of a lazy life on the banks of the Loire,with its simple joys (the lily of the valley,the snails,the tyre which becomes a swing and a beautiful symbol of the ruthless passage of time in the last pictures). One can feel a certain misogyny -which was sometimes present in the French cinema of the thirties -: Villeret's wife is an ugly shrew,who never smiles,even to her children ;and Marie,the girl with whom Gamblin falls in love ,is only in search of a money match -but we are told ,when Gamblin leaves the place to never return ,that "she has not heard the last of him " . Male camaraderie indeed!
The weakest link is the unbearable "actor" Eric Cantona, but ,as his scenes are not really included in the main story ,if you watch the movie again,it's easy to skip them.
like this? try these .... "La Gloire De Mon Père" and "Le Château De Ma Mère" Yves Robert (1989)