Life is a Long Quiet River. (15.)
Directed by Etienne Chatilliez. 1987
Starring Benoit Magimel, Helene Vincent, Valerie Lalande, Tara Romer, Jerome Floch, Sylvie Cubertafon, Emmanuel Cendrier, Daniel Gelin. Out on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy on July 20th. 89 mins.
You always have a shot if you have a good title. When I saw the phrase, Life Is A Long, Quiet River on the release schedule I felt an instant pang of recognition – I know that title, I know that title. Couldn't place it with a film but I knew that title meant something. To be honest, I thought something Eastern European, maybe a broad satire from the former Yugoslavia; something a little more exotic than a French comedy from the mid to late 80s. It was a big, loud hit over there and, if I recall correctly, passed through with barely a ripple over here. Probably because, at least to viewers over here, this is short, ugly film that manages to be simplistic and inexplicable.
Set in Northern, industrial France, the plot is centred on two caricature families – an upper-middle-class caricature family and a poor underclass caricature family. They are linked by a twelve-year-old boy Maurice (Magimel) who was switched at birth. When the ruse is discovered he leaves the underclass caricature family that he grew up in to live with the caricature upper family. Initially, he appears to be adapting smoothly to his new life the cynical, resourceful streak that helped him survive in the bottom strata of society is still there and the cross-pollination of caricatures causes mayhem
It's a novelty in being a French film about, at least partly, poor white people. Everybody in French film is bourgeois, to varying degrees of petiteness. Anyone not bourgeois gets corralled off into the La Haine ghetto where the only chance of escape is to become sucked into some Luc Besson action silliness. Of course, despite their dominance, the bourgeois has a rotten time in French cinema as the target for satire. The arid perfection of the church-going Le Quesnoys' lives are mercilessly mocked, yet when things start to go wrong you feel protective of them. This is because the thieving, sponging proletarian Groseilles are horrendous: like the family from Bread imagined by John Waters rather than Carla Lane.
There are a few smiles along the way and the humour of the trendy vicar's Jesus Returns song survives the subtitles but most of it is lost in translation. In the 70s the British would be annually enraged by the nation's inability to win the Golden Rose of Montreaux despite us having The Best Television In The World. (The Montreaux global TV prizes were enormously prestigious back them but now nobody much cares – it's like the Boat Race of showbiz awards.) Every year we'd send them The Goodies or Fawlty Towers and those bloody foreigners would maliciously refuse to find them funny. But watching this is to see how flat the language barrier can knock even the funniest humour. Over a decade ago Dany Boon had a massive hit in France with Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks), a culture clash comedy also set in Northern France but it never even got released over here. Apparently in France, they still piss themselves at Ravioli Mondays, a pun that doesn't translate. But it's not just lost wordplay, there's so much cultural baggage here that makes no impact at all.
Extras.
Archival interviews with director Étienne Chatiliez, actor André Wilms,
co-writer/co-producer Florence Quentin and producer Charles Gassot
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Romney
Directed by Etienne Chatilliez. 1987
Starring Benoit Magimel, Helene Vincent, Valerie Lalande, Tara Romer, Jerome Floch, Sylvie Cubertafon, Emmanuel Cendrier, Daniel Gelin. Out on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy on July 20th. 89 mins.
You always have a shot if you have a good title. When I saw the phrase, Life Is A Long, Quiet River on the release schedule I felt an instant pang of recognition – I know that title, I know that title. Couldn't place it with a film but I knew that title meant something. To be honest, I thought something Eastern European, maybe a broad satire from the former Yugoslavia; something a little more exotic than a French comedy from the mid to late 80s. It was a big, loud hit over there and, if I recall correctly, passed through with barely a ripple over here. Probably because, at least to viewers over here, this is short, ugly film that manages to be simplistic and inexplicable.
Set in Northern, industrial France, the plot is centred on two caricature families – an upper-middle-class caricature family and a poor underclass caricature family. They are linked by a twelve-year-old boy Maurice (Magimel) who was switched at birth. When the ruse is discovered he leaves the underclass caricature family that he grew up in to live with the caricature upper family. Initially, he appears to be adapting smoothly to his new life the cynical, resourceful streak that helped him survive in the bottom strata of society is still there and the cross-pollination of caricatures causes mayhem
It's a novelty in being a French film about, at least partly, poor white people. Everybody in French film is bourgeois, to varying degrees of petiteness. Anyone not bourgeois gets corralled off into the La Haine ghetto where the only chance of escape is to become sucked into some Luc Besson action silliness. Of course, despite their dominance, the bourgeois has a rotten time in French cinema as the target for satire. The arid perfection of the church-going Le Quesnoys' lives are mercilessly mocked, yet when things start to go wrong you feel protective of them. This is because the thieving, sponging proletarian Groseilles are horrendous: like the family from Bread imagined by John Waters rather than Carla Lane.
There are a few smiles along the way and the humour of the trendy vicar's Jesus Returns song survives the subtitles but most of it is lost in translation. In the 70s the British would be annually enraged by the nation's inability to win the Golden Rose of Montreaux despite us having The Best Television In The World. (The Montreaux global TV prizes were enormously prestigious back them but now nobody much cares – it's like the Boat Race of showbiz awards.) Every year we'd send them The Goodies or Fawlty Towers and those bloody foreigners would maliciously refuse to find them funny. But watching this is to see how flat the language barrier can knock even the funniest humour. Over a decade ago Dany Boon had a massive hit in France with Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks), a culture clash comedy also set in Northern France but it never even got released over here. Apparently in France, they still piss themselves at Ravioli Mondays, a pun that doesn't translate. But it's not just lost wordplay, there's so much cultural baggage here that makes no impact at all.
Extras.
Archival interviews with director Étienne Chatiliez, actor André Wilms,
co-writer/co-producer Florence Quentin and producer Charles Gassot
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Romney
