Willkommen bei den Sch'tis

This movie is easily the best French film that has come out in the last years. It is an excellent comedy with the two great actors Dany Boon and Kad Merad but the movie has also its philosophical, dramatical and sad parts.

This movie is extremely funny, it is really difficult to make me laugh but this film made me laugh really hard several times. The best examples are when the postman and his director are having some drinks with half of the town while they deliver the letters or the scenes in the old mining town of Bergues, This movie is extremely touching and emotional. When the excellent Kad Merad tells his new partners and friends about his lies and mistakes, you feel really sad and ashamed for him. The movie's finale is also very emotional and a perfect and really philosophical conclusion.

But the real star of the movie is the whole region, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where this movie is settled. This film presents strange and funny accents of the Sticks, their historical and charming towns, their way of living and thinking, their relation to the other parts of France and the clichés and prejudices about both sides. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais is more than just a part of France, it is a country within a country and a culture within a culture. I have been in this region for some weeks during an exchange program and I can tell that those people living there are mostly open-minded, very sympathetic and have many reasons to be proud of their region. I really like this movie as it reminds me of a few very positive and unforgettable memories. And I like the movie because it is different and finally a French film that doesn't present us Paris over and over again. The France is way more than just Paris and there are many beautiful and unique regions and people to discover and this successful and charming movie shows this to all the people out there.

For everyone that is interested in a touching, emotional and simply profound comedy movie or anyone that likes foreign cultures and lifestyles, this unique movie is an absolute masterpiece. I hope that other French regions will follow this example and make similar movies in the future and take the focus off Paris a little bit.

A really, really charming film. Charming being the word for movies with really simple plots, very down-to-earth stakes, and the ability to leave you with a big G-rated smile on your face afterwards. If you like cross-cultural fish-out-of-water movies such as My Big, Fat Greek Wedding, you're going to love this story of a postmaster who gets reassigned to the apparently misunderstood (in many senses) northern region of France, and how lives change accordingly.

But what really impressed me the most were the subtitles. The English subtitles amazingly captured all the nuances of the convoluted wordplay that was obviously happening on screen. This becomes an even more impressive feat when you consider that much of the verbal fun of the movie comes from the various misunderstandings between the French-speaking lead character and the folks who speak in the northern provincial "Schticks" dialect. Because of this added layer of complexity, I realized that capturing these dynamics cannot be the product of any ordinary clerical translation job.

And it turns out I was right. I later read that the director, Dany Boon, actually took an active role in ensuring that all the subtitles for the different languages properly and lovingly reflected the nuances and intent of the on screen banter. With truly impressive results.

So kudos to Boon for paying attention to this particular detail. Oftentimes, foreign audiences miss out on much of the seeming in-jokes that movies play for their local audiences. "Schticks" made it a point to share its world with everyone else. Great job.

Of course it's not a deep film, but nor is it pretentious. It might also not please everyone - if you don't want to have a good laugh, or if your French is challenged, you could find it dull. But true laugh-out-loud comedies that feel genuine and refreshing (like this one) instead of grotesque and vulgar are few and far in between. Moreover, and even more rare, the whole audience - me included - seemed to be howling in laughter, not just three people making a lot of noise.

While the pun is largely based on the local "ch'ti" dialect, it is not limited to it and humour works throughout, well timed and mastered by the actors. The dialect itself was ably used, and the audience are introduced to it nicely. Boon is wonderful, both touching and funny, and Kad Merad delivers a nice performance. More than the dialect or the actors, the region itself and its people are beautifully pictured, and the spirit is well captured. Clichés are used for comedic purpose, and are dispelled instead of being woven. Amateurs will also find an incredible short appearance by Michel Galabru (my favourite part of the film). The film never aims to be realistic, and never seems pretentious, but the feel of Northern France is genuine.

In the end, it is a truly pleasing film: funny, true to itself, fresh and nicely French (but not the part you are most used to seeing) is what you should expect.

I saw this movie in Lille, France, two weeks after the premiere, and the movie theaters were full. Everyone wanted to see it. (After two weeks, 15 million viewers. That's a lot.) Even though they sometimes spoke Ch'ti it was quite easy to understand, and many parts would have been funny in any language. I really recommend everyone to see it, no matter if you speak French or not. Many of the jokes with words (jeu de mots) are only comprehensible if you speak French, but it's still great. The point with the movie isn't just the language, another aspect is the prejudices the Southerns have about the Northerns. Which can be found in many more countries than France. I really think that it's a movie everyone can find something to like about. Maybe the French over-hyped it, but it's still a superb movie.

Dany Boon's "Bienvenue chez les ch'tis" ("Welcome to the Sticks" in English) reminded me of "My Cousin Vinny" and "Doc Martin", with a big-city person coming to a small town and having trouble understanding the mores. In this case, a man from southern France gets sent to a small town in the north and having trouble with their accents (to say the least). While there are a lot of challenges for the guy to overcome, he's just as foreign to the townspeople.

In addition to the humor, the movie also looks at the stereotypes that people can have of those from certain regions (i.e., in the US, northerners tend to view southerners as ignorant yahoos). It's not the greatest French movie that I've ever seen, but it does a good job addressing the prejudices that the people throughout France have of each other. You just know that the French have countless stereotypes of foreigners. I recommend it.