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Reviews
Mammuth (2010)
Don't get mistaken
First of all, you're not going to watch a typical French movie here. So don't get mistaken by the actors list (Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani...). Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern, the writers/directors, are mostly known from their characters in the TV show named "Groland", but their movies are less famous. If you never heard about "Aaltra", "Avida" or "Louise-Michel", then you'll probably encounter this kind of movie for the first time.
This isn't a glamorous story with pretty people. The acting/dialogs feels quite real, with their silences and boring/silly situations. Most of the characters are a bit nuts or flawed. The rhythm is slow, but so is the main character, and it's hard not to get attached to him and his simplicity.
This is the story of Serge, a somewhat depressed simple-minded butcher who's just retired and is asked to find old salary papers to get his full pension. For that, his wife, the strong character in their couple, sends him to take a trip on his old bike while leaving her at home. No need to say his trip won't exactly go as planned and he will mostly revisit his young adulthood while encountering a number of atypical people.