Un village presque parfait

12 years ago, in the little town in Brittany where I spend as much time as I can, I saw a great French-Canadian comedy, complete with thick rural Canadian accents, about a small town with no jobs left that needed to convince a doctor to settle there so that they could get a new factory, and jobs. The movie was called *La grande séduction," and it was a very enjoyable movie.

A decade later, the French have decided to remake it, repeating much of it verbatim, but shifting the locale to a small town in SE France, high in the very beautiful Pyrenees. I'm not quite sure what the point was, other than to spare the French the effort of having to understand a thick French-Canadian accent. After 12 years, I can't say how much if anything new has been added with this version. A lot of it was very familiar.

But all that said, this is one very enjoyable movie, as its predecessor was. If you have ever lived in a small, out of the way town, as I do when I am in France, you know what it's like when the jobs leave and the businesses follow. Eventually the school closes, and then the post office. Finally, even the mayor's office is only open a few hours a week. It's sad.

But it's also noble. These folk don't want a handout. They don't want to live on welfare. They want a chance to earn an honest living - just like the farmers currently manifesting in rural France.

And, it must be said, they want a chance to retain the small-town life that they love, and that does, in fact, have a great deal to offer that Paris cannot provide.

Granted, this movie does border on the feel-good variety, though it never overflows into American sentimental. Still, the characters are not one-dimensional; they are human beings you enjoy spending time with.

So treat yourself, and get to know them.

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12.9.2015

I watched this movie again tonight. It really is an enjoyable film. Yes, you can see much of the plot coming before you get there. But the characters come of as very real - which is actually the major issue in the movie - and not as caricatures. And you really grow to like them.

It makes the big city/small village argument very clearly, with no gray in between. But frankly, if you've ever lived in Paris and a small town like this, the argument is pretty clear, at least for me.

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It's an entertaining movie if you just want to be distracted for a while, but like so mamy other french comedies I have watched in the past years, this one is also just a sequence of clichés and stereotypes. It is the more annoying that the whole premise of it is that this city guy has lots of preconceived and insulting ideas about the villagers and is presented as disrespectful to the villagers, but then he is himself a walking stereotype of a modern city dweller, but it is totally ok to make fun of him. Maybe a lot of people are ok with that, but I don't enjoy biased narratives with two dimensional characters. It needs to be complex and believable, even if it is a comedy. Aso, it needs to be self aware and this movie isn't one bit.

Makes me feel good and itz funny, mostly the first half. Its enough for a thursday nite, cheers.

A special note: i feel like i miss my old plain french :) itz still me askin for more characters.heyy hoo.

I never thought that such light hearted movies are still made!Just loved it for the plot,beauty of south of france and direction!

The story : a charming village in the middle of nowhere in south-west France (Aulon in Hautes-Pyrénées), has seen its last business shut down, and now everyone is surviving on tiny state benefits. The mayor (Didier Bourdon) applies for a grant from Brussels, to restart another factory, but this will be given only if there is a doctor with a five years contract coming to the village. They find one for one month, and from there, they will imagine tricks to keep him and convince him that this is the right place to stay.

The comedy : The film is a succession of funny situations and gags, with the young doctor from the big city discovering life in an isolated place, with no mobile connection, and Internet access only in the morning at the Post Office. Villagers are more concerned by fishing and hunting, than by electronic music or game of cricket which is his passion. All this is run at slow pace, and the development of the story is not sophisticated, but never boring, and you will have a few good laughs. It is the best view of traditional deep countryside of France, thrown on screen with all possible clichés.

The result : I visit some friends sometimes in such a village, in the Puy de Dome. There is only one factory canning mushrooms, no shop except a van for groceries and bread stopping near the church every day. The school is still opened, but just, and the Post Office has closed long ago. So I could perfectly understand the problems addressed in the film. It is good to show remote communities in such a light way. The final product is a decent refreshing film, making you smile, and having you wonder if life is not better away from the traffic jams and the frenetic madness of our metropoles.