Ma Loute

I just saw it in a festival and a several ladies left before the end. Me, i laughed a lot until tears come to my eyes. You need to really enjoy bizarre movies to like this one. This movie is unusual, funny, rare; the characters are dorky, exaggerated, histrionic, endearing. I can't tell too much without spoilers, but if you like peculiar movies with weird sense of humor, this movie is perfect. Its in the same line of Toni Erdmann but... a little weirder. And Juliette Binoche is awesome here. I loved it but again, it is not for people who don't like stranger things. And I need to complete the ten-lines-review, so I want to say, one more time, if you like weird movies, go for it!

An extremely overweight detective and his way smarter right hand side comes to Slack By in 1910 to investigate why burgoise tourists traceless disappears. Ma Loute is the son of a fisherman which falls in love with one of the tourist - a girl dressed like a boy.

More you don't need to know about "Ma Loute" or "Slack Bay". What appears is a very strange and beautiful movie, which lets the viewer decide weather you find the story appealing or not.

It's the first movie I watch made by Bruno Dumont, and I've now put the rest up on my watchlist.

It's quirky, strange, gross and funny. I thought of Ettore Scolas "Ugly, dirty and bad" and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films, and maybe with a touch of Wes Anderson.

It certainly will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love such a gem. I'm not sure what Dumont wants to tell, but it sure is a treat.

The centennial anniversary of the breaking of WWI was an opportunity for several books to be written and films to be made (most of them documentaries) not only about the war itself, but also about the years that preceded it. Those were the finals years of a period that had started at the end of the Franco – Prussian war in 1870 and had seen a period of more than four decades of peace, never encountered in the written history of Europe. For many people living it those times La Belle Epoque seemed to signal an apparent stability based on the balance between the power of a few Empires and Republics. A middle class appeared in Europe allowing for economic development, arts flourished, and life was good for many. Yet, the political tensions were present at the level of the relations between the big powers in Europe, and many of the national societies were sick. Which is exactly the theme of Bruno Dumont's film 'Ma Loute'.

Dumont is one of the masters of a cinema sub-genre which I will call 'films about degenerated people' (or social, or family relations, or a combination of these. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet 's Delicatessen is another example of the genre, so is Dogtooth by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. 'Ma Loute' not only takes the genre one step ahead because of the quality of the execution, but also provides political and historical dimensions by locating the story of mysterious disappearances, social conflict between the rich tourists and the poor fishermen and a love story which is impossible for many reasons in a precise place – the North-West of France close to Calais and time – the end of La Belle Epoque.

Viewers should be warned that this is no easy film to watch. 5% of the audience walked out the theater I was in. Among those who stayed I suspect that half disliked what they have seen, with the negative reactions between considering the theme disgusting to ridiculous. The acting style is also very heavily and intentionally exaggerated. It is the description of sick families, of hateful relations between classes, of a non-functional society at all levels. The fact that all these seem to get some rational explanation may satisfy for a moment, but then the film slides in a combination of grotesque and fantastic (the levitation scenes) that is close to genial. Watching fine actors as Fabrice Luchini, Juliette Binoche,or Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is of course a delight but do not expect them to act like in any other movies that you have seen with them in the past. The young couple acted by Brandon Lavieville and Raph both at their first film add some level of innocence, but all is under the sign of the deformed mirrors here.

'Ma Louche' is a very different kind of cinema experience, viewers take risks watching it, and they are rewarded with a surprise which according to taste and approach can be very good or very unpleasant.

I've not seen any other films by Bruno Dumont, so I don't know how typical this is, but it's the strangest film I've seen for a while.

Whether one finds it funny or not I guess will be down to personal taste, but mostly I found the quiet humour to be appropriate to the style, with only Binoche's over-the-top performance striking a jarring note. Many of the cast (the fat detective in particular) were clearly having a great time, and the mix of serious issues and disparate characters worked well for me.

The cinematography was also great and, although there were many loose ends and perhaps 20-30 minutes too much in the running time, there was enough plot and a fairly satisfying resolution. Just go with it.

All the humor is lost in translation. If your using subtitles give this one a miss. It seems extremely gory in places. I watch a lot of films from all over the world using subtitles and I honestly can't tell if this one is good or not.