Big Sentiments Make for Good Sports

Jean Carmet and Michel Bouquet lead the line in what I think is a rather brilliant work of comedy.

Visual gags doggedly follow these two stressed, lugubrious heads of family about, Georges as he deals with his mother's funeral, Claude as he hosts his daughter's wedding. Their wives Christiane (Micheline Luccione) and Paulette (Anouk Ferjac) somehow keep the show on the road but no-one is immune from the deluge of mishaps.

This is a Paris of traffic jams. Not a car bumper is spared, not a parking ticket avoided. Those cars that have not been driven into lamposts are either clamped for parking or rendered immobile by container lorries and traffic jams. Don't miss the roundabout sign for the Place d'Italie. Georges meanwhile has clearly inherited his mother's wreckless driving habits. And while we're on transport, the coffee filter only works when Concorde passes by.

The modern world causes a stream of inconveniences. Faulty musical doorbells, rude teenagers in leather jackets, chewing gum, the newly-built Gare Montparnasse with its automatic taps, the photo booth, drinks machines, pyramidal cartons of milk, biros, rotating ashtrays, seat belts, telephone booths, hairdryers, glass doors with magnetic handles, electric doorbells, an electric clothes dolly, electric meat carvers, travelling alarm clocks and briquets... they each malfunction with impeccable timing.

Teenager Anne-Marie (Anicée Alvina) mopes about, reminding us at first of Alvina's funny cameo in 1970's 'Elle boit pas, elle fume pas...'. She is getting married, so desperate is she to escape her family. The long telephone calls to her boyfriend, the gentle flirting with her shy uncle Stéphane (Michel Lonsdale)... admirers of Alvina's charm will not be disappointed.

But there are little moments of revelation too, such as when Georges realises how horrible he has always been to the man in the wheelchair, always stuck haplessly trying to communicate or to simply reach the buttons in the lift.

The marriage celebrations and the funeral party take place in the neighbouring apartments. The funeral tea is commandeered by a monologue from the aunt (Gabrielle Doulcet), congratulating herself on her good health to the sound of snapping crustaceans. The wedding party clap their way through some bizarre chant (pu cha chi, pu cha cha...), bullied into enjoying themselves by master of ceremonies from hell Henri Guybet.

I think this comedy does more than stand the test of time. As well as being a delightful observational comedy, it's a encyclopaedic homage to seventies modernism; and, of course, it's a celebration of difficult families and of Frenchness.

A charming comedy, interesting, today, especially for cast.

Two families in a blockhouse. One losting the mother of husband, the other prepairing the wedding of daughter. A chain of absurd accidents, conflicts, missunderstandings, large islands of loneliness and efforts to save the apparences.

The talk in cellar between the fathers of two families represents the best part of this film exploring, in nice manner, familiar situations of everyday.

A seductive puzzle, especially for Gabrielle Dourcet as Yvette and for the innocent man in wheelchair.

And, sure, for the bitterness covered by gags , for well use of dark humor , for the atmosphere of the two events and for the drops of nostalgia, from clothes to furniture, about a lost time.

Plot : Two families live on the same landing of an apartment building .Mr Reverson's daughter is getting married and it is cause for celebration .Mr Armand's mom has just died in a car crash and her funeral takes place the same day as the wedding. But nothing happens as planned :half of the guests of the wedding are lost on the highway whilst the mourners,during the meal ,have to listen to cousin Yvette who ,pretending to sadly miss her late sister , has words full of venom against her and her son.

"Finer feelings make good blowouts " is a very funny comedy,full of gags ,puns and black humor , but it is a dark irony ; these people , guests or mourners ,look a lot like us and the director never despises them ;much to the viewer's surprise ,earnest thespians such Michel Bouquet and Michael Lonsdale are extremely at ease in the comic field ; Jean Carmet ,on the other hand , was one of the best comic actors in France ,with his hangdog looks and his stupefied face , always overtaken by events, he rises to the occasion too ; the second half,however ,belongs to Gabrielle Doulcet ,the spiteful old lady everybody knows,the kind of character Etienne Chatiliez would use in his "Tatie Danielle" .

Often riotously funny , this bittersweet comedy is to be recommended .