Les vieux fourneaux

Let me as a preamble confess one thing: I have not read the original comic book series (though I do feel like it now). I will therefore deal with Christophe Duthuron's movie as such, without any point of comparison of any kind with Wilfrid Lupano and Paul Cauuet's source work. The first point I would like to raise is that I enjoyed the movie very much. Not specially for its story, whose starting point is nothing new. We have indeed seen dozens of films describing a funeral and the forced gathering it entails: a group of individuals (whether relatives or friends) whose ties have loosened owing to estrangement or diverging interests, suddenly find themselves face to face again for just this circumstancial reason. Not very original maybe but on the other hand generally giving rise to works above average. Which is the case for "Les Vieux fourneaux" ("Tricky Old Dogs") as well, thanks to an impressive lot of added value, namely fleshy characters, an excellent cast, witty dialogue and a knack for mixing comedy and drama, laughter and emotion. What is awesome is Christophe Duthuron and Wilfrid Lupano's facetious one liners never prevent a meaningful social commentary or a no-nonsense look on the sorry condition of today's world - and the reverse. As for the direction by newcomer Duthuron (hitherto a screenwriter and theater director), it proves quite a good surprise. For the fledgling filmmaker is not content to stage a fine screenplay and to direct top notch comedians to perfection, he also has interesting cinematic film ideas. For example the sequence in which a factory at the bottom of a valley slowly disappears under the eyes of the three old pranksters to give way to the unspoilt nature of their youth. The next second, they are seen as the brats they used to be, joyfully frolicking. Or that other scene wherein Antoine (Roland Giraud) revisits a past workers' strike whose participants in black and white are suddenly frozen while the onlooker remains in color and in movement. Or else that of a puppet show which transforms itself into an animated sequence. Wonderfully played by a hilarious threesome of old grumpy rebels, Pierre Richard as Pierrot, the restless old anarchist, Roland Giraud as Antoine, the testy dandy, and Eddy Mitchell as Mimile, the retired globe-trotter, the film cannot but make you laugh. Add to the three musketeers'flawless performance an excellent role for an excellent actress (Alice Pol, who gets into the role of Sophie, Antoine's grandaughter, revolted like the three old men but for better reasons), Myriam Boyer (the elderly farmer hated for bad reasons) and Henri Guybet (very moving as an old industrialist who is losing his head, assuredly his greatest performance to-date) and you will have no bad surprise, the acting is invariably top notch. A comedy for sure and a funny one at that but also a serious movie with serious themes (old age, revolt, loyalty, treachery) and a relevant social examination (the ravages of ultra-liberalism). A well made popular film which does not take people for fools. Therefore recommended.

Three old friends in their 70s have all sorts of problems with money with the times having changed and the values of the neoliberal modern day playing havoc with Their psyches.

There is also a granddaughter who is a puppeteer And some story in the village going back to the end of the second World war. Some feud. Something nobody will mention.

The granddaughter is trying to work it out as she has recently moved there from Paris. She cannot understand the dynamics of her new home.

This takes forever to get somewhere as a story but nobody is in any rush since Pierre Richard And Eddy Mitchell are So entertaining That no one will be in a hurry to get there. Pierre Richard Was well known in the 1970s for a series of stupid comedy films which I always found personally totally unfunny

But here in 2022 with a head full of white hair and huge glasses he is totally hilarious.

Eddy Mitchell has been so deeply wEdged Into French society that it would be impossible not to remember him he was part of the yéyé Movement of the early 1960s copying the nascent rock music movement which came over from America. In latter years he became an actor and has a huge on-screen presence.

The granddaughter here Alice Pol is also very good. I think I have seen her in other films but cannot remember which.

Anyway it's simmers quietly until the end when in a beautiful home in Italy all is revealed all the ghastly shenanigans of 1945 which took place when the boys were merely 10.

In many ways it is a story a social painting of events which have coloured the life of French society for 70 years And why I would term this a karmic tale ...

Is it a masterpiece? No ... Is it funny? Most definitely Most Viewers will enjoy this.