“… typical French sense of fun, slapstick and satire. It’s not quite Parasite, but it’s in the same territory.“
Con Nats
3 Stars or dirty windows
French Film Festival
3 March to 26 April
The 37th French Film Festival opens on 3 March. French films tend to sell out at the Sydney Film Festival and with up to 3 million tickets sold around the country for previous festivals, you should buy tickets soon.
There looks to be some nice choices with Isabelle Huppert starring in The Richest Woman in the World, Jodie Foster starring in The Ice Tower and the Frank Ozon directed The Stranger looking appealing. Ten female directors are featured, which is bout 10 Academy Awards worth.
The Party’s Over
Our sample of the festival was The Party’s Over a typically fun French satire about a wealthy and famous family and their caretakers who look after their summer house. Medhi (Sam Outalbali) is a young law graduate meeting his girlfriend’s Garance (Noee Abita) family for the first time. Father Phillipe Troussard (Laurent Lafitte) is an arrogant lawyer and perfectionist and his wife, Laurence (Elodie Bouchez), a retired actress. Garance wants to be an actress but can’t cry. House caretaker Tony (Ramzi Bedia) literally cops too much crap, then has had too much to drink and has a drunken outburst at his bourgeois bosses, which leads to his being fired. Instead of leaving, they fight to save their lives. The conflict degenerates into legal threats and intimidation when newbie, Medhi, tries to bring an end to the madness.
There is very good acting from all the cast and there are many familiar faces. Laurent Lafitte and Elodie Bouchez are nicely arrogant as the wealthy couple and Laure Calamy as Tony’s wife is always very good. You can tell the actors are having fun with their characters and good lines.
Medhi is the only character worthy of empathy which confuses the politics of the story. The setting is quite rich and the caretaker’s quarters are quite colourful to highlight’s their divide. Director Cordier has brought out the visuals and colour rather than the shade in the characters and story.
The ending went for another laugh instead of cleverness that didn’t quite satisfy, but it did entertain. It seems the anti-ending is becoming quite common.
Hint to the director: Don’t start your film with a scene about soggy lettuce. It can be used against you if you go for a soft ending.
3 Dirty Windows
Con Nats, On The Screen
