Reviews

After the 9pm news on TV5 they sometimes show a film. Last night they chose "Les Tombees du Ciel" with Jean Rochefort, one of my favourite actors.

Like so many French films, it showed how hard life can be and in the end it just left me with a sense of hope, a feeling of lightness.

Shot almost entirely at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, it portrayed the life of the people trapped between states. They really do exist - I've seen them at Sheremetzavo 2 in Moscow.

Films say so much about the society that makes them - often in ways that were never intended by the director. This film just confirmed the reasons I spend so long and I work so hard to learn French.

I have just seen this film on a DVD rented from my local library - whew, so relieved I didn't take my wife to the cinema at 6 times the price!

This is the worst example of insulting stereotyping I can remember seeing. The head of a Greek immigrant family living in Chicago who apparently arrived in the US with $8, and who has built up successful businesses is portayed as a lovable moron. All his family are portrayed as lovable morons. His 30 year old still single (!) daughter meets a the school teacher son of a lawyer who along with his wife is portayed as a couple who are incapable of putting two sentences together when they meet their daughter-in-law to be or her family.

Chicago is portayed as a sparkling paradise consisting of leafy suburbs and a friendly Greek resto. There are no poor people, no black people, no traffic hold ups, no crime....

Compare this film with the British "East is East" which deals with the same "head of immigrant family / cultural clash / children etc. but with real humour, grit and pathos. Greek Wedding wasn't even funny, I can't recall a single funny line. I spent more time watching the clock than the screen as I fought the temptation to go and do something interesting but I stayed with my wife to the bitter end.

I'd give East is East 9.5/10. I give the story of the Stereotypos family 0.

Tanguy made me laugh even though my understanding of French is far from perfect. The plot is simple - life in his parents Paris apartment is so pleasant Tanguy a post grad student is still there at 28 years old but his parents secretly want him out!

Sabine Azema (Tanguys mother) was so funny that she really made the film for me. Don't miss it if you like to laugh!