Roublardise

After Atomik Circus, the hyperactive Belgian Benoît Poelvoorde is yet again jumping with young directors and writers in a crazy movie with lots of pace, plenty of ideas and references, a lot of humor (JC Van Damme laughing at the image of himself that was built and then that has spread to all french-speakers in the world after several interviews and comments he made when on drugs again and again, several crazy TV appearances saying stupid things absurd semi-philosophical metaphorical sentences in a very pedantic tone while they meant nothing because he was stoned etc...) and some critics made about current society with wit, discretely etc...He succeeds at making his crazily pathetic character very touching and above all hilarious as always...

Fantastic cast : Guillaume Canet, Zabou Breitman (= two directors ), Benoît Poelvoorde as Lenny Bar (there is a game of words with this name in French so that when you pronounce his character's surname + last name it sounds as if you've said : "the boobs"...Stupid right now but funny during some scenes in the movie...LOL!), Guillaume Gallienne of the "Comédie Française" (from 'Monsieur Ibrahim' which won a prize at the Mostra de Venezia with Omar Sharif and introducing Pierre Boulanger...), a small but very funny part for Gilles Lellouche's girl Mélanie Doutey as a girl who only sees half of things, a funny part for Lellouche himself as one of the bounty hunters/ice-skaters twins next to Léa Drucker (who has played in each of Aurouet & Lellouche's two short-films...), François Berléand is good in this kind of cynical roles as always, Jean-Pierre Cassel (yep, Vincent and Cécile's father...) is coming back stronger than ever with both this movie and the great but under-rated "Virgil" in which he was even better...etc...

Oh and don't blink to catch Guillaume Canet's 6 years wife at the time (they're not together anymore) make a small kind of cameo appearance as a nightclubber at some point in the movie...LOL

Just go see it!

I don't like the first review that was made on it...Just to explain one of my "complaints" : first, it is not a "special forces type film" at all...and i won't even comment on the rest...*roll eyes*

This film is a success in many aspects IMHO despite all the fears i had when i discovered who would be directing it...

It's adapted from a very well-known French TV series of the same name which was a huge success in the 70s in France. The script is well-written IMHO. You feel they've done their homework. The magazine Historia even dedicated a whole edition to this movie in a way and the whole historical period it depicted... Interviews of its makers revealed that they've done their best to keep the spirit of the series while still taking risks etc...like choosing a Belgian to play an Occitan French with a strong southern accent typical of Occitans(that's a bit polemical here by the way...), trying to mix huge parts of history and historical figures in the story (Minister Jean Jaurès and his journal L'Humanité, Paris Préfet etc...), The Triple Entente, the "prémices" of WWI, the 'Russian Loans', "La Bande à Bonnot", the "prémices" of the Russian Revolution and of socialism, emergence of new types of criminality and new ways of fighting crime in response, rivalry between the Brigades du Tigre and the Parisian Police in Paris and other Préfectures in the rest of France..., scientific discoveries which started helping the police at the time, the corruption and affairs of the time, touchy political subjects of the time and used for some of them to make parallels with current situations and to fire critics at some current problems in France etc...

The European actors (German Diane Kruger, Italian Stefano Accorsi from the great movie Romanzo Criminale, Belgian star Olivier Gourmet that it's no need to present now after having shown his talent times and times again, he's choosing a new kind of role for him there...) are fantastic, same for the Frenchies: Clovis Cornillac (this guy is over talented and it still shows in "popular" films like that...), Léa Drucker (she's not only good in plays, cinéma should use her more after this and Virgil hopefully...), Édouard Baer, Agnès Soral (always in small roles but always perfect), Flamand on top...; the characters are well-depicted, the feeling of the time too, musically, esthetically that's OK too (i couldn't forget of the main theme song after seeing the movie, Olivier Florio modernized it well...). Go see it!

It's got so many levels to it and it succeeds at each of them : drama, critics made, historical depiction and analysis in a way, action, aesthetic aspect of the film (its overall look etc...i don't know if the word aesthetic is even existing ...erm...), and so on...For once, a film based on a successful TV series isn't a flop...

I can't wait to see the sequel. Yep. A sequel is already in the making. These characters (both fictive or real) and the time period they evolve in can give a lot more since they're so rich so i think that's justified...=)

I hope you'll find my review helpful guys...

PS : I appologize in advance for any butchering of English i would have made. It would not be not intentional. My English is actually that bad... Sorry.

As a French, i found it very pleasant to be able to laugh at the old stereotype which is made of French like that, at some defaults of Westerners, at Spy movies etc...and at a lot of other things too, en route... I already saw it 3 times and each time i discovered new things and laughed to tears... Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Béjo, Aure Atika the director and all the cast, all the crew did a fantastic job. This movie is funny but is although much more than that : it's got plenty of levels to it. You laugh because of simple gags, because of some critics made with wit (the movie's courageous enough to be critical), because of physical comedy, because you believe in the characters etc... Esthetically and musically, it's a success too. Go see it if you can.