Préparez vos mouchoirs

"Get Our Your Handkerchiefs" is a funny little film about the need for sexual gratification and all the insecurities and absurdities it entails. The humor is unapologetically raunchy, and yet the story retains all the sophistication of something by Lubitsch. But it's also quite touching; the dismal woman, it turns out, only wanted someone she could identify with, someone who felt the same need for intellectual companionship that was masked by her sexual dissatisfaction. The solution is provided by a 13-year-old wunderkind who, unlike the husband or his friend, knows how to relate to the woman, and their relationship is far more real and convincing that any other in the story. Bertrand Blier constructed a film that questions and ultimately debunks nearly every `rule' on relationships, and provides more than a few belly laughs along the way. In a nutshell, "Get Our Your Handkerchiefs" is one of the few sex comedies out there that actually has something to say about sex.

If your ideas about sexual relations are fixed, don't see this film. Bertrand Blier turns everything upside down. No clichés here. This is relational anarchy at its most challenging. It's moving, it's stimulating and it is very well acted. Les valseuses was equally anarchic, but its tendency was rather unsympathetic. In Les valseuses, Depardieu and Dewaere were highly unlikeable. Here they are very likeable, and Carol Laure is beautiful in all her passivity.

Solange is depressed: she's stopped smiling, she eats little, she says less. She has fainting fits. Her husband Raoul seeks to save her by enlisting Stephane, a stranger, to be her lover. Although he listens to Mozart and has every Pocket Book arranged in alphabetical order, Stephane fails to cheer Solange.

This is not a film that will appeal to everyone. Those who do not like seeing excessive female toplessness will not enjoy a large part of this film. And there are certainly some sexual situations that will be uncomfortable -- and could never have been filmed in America.

But this is a very original, very unusual romantic comedy. While the modern romantic comedy has a woman going through ups and downs before ending up with her dream guy, this is not that story... the central woman is pursued by multiple men with no real interest whatsoever. It is bizarre, and humorous in a twisted way.

This film is wonderful. Blier brings classic elements of French farce films into cuttings that remind me of Melville. He does a wonderful job of developing Solange, Raoul, and Stephane as caricatures...giving the viewer great understanding of how these characters will react in future situation. The eratic behaviors are completely acceptable on the same terms that the wild cuts...from dinner table to summer camp, and opening in a restaurant with no frame of reference...forces one to become involved in the story. So many Hollywood films 'do the work for you' so to speak. This leaves the movie experience stale. I'm not going to get involved in a film unless the director invites me to do so. Blier certainly does that. And the Mozart concerto helps. Gervase de Brumer.

An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, a Golden Globe nominee, and a César winner for the music, this film is said to be what Rushmore wasn't.

Raoul (a very young looking Gérard Depardieu) is a husband who is trying to make his wife Solange (Carole Laure) happy. he thinks he can do it by arranging for Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere) to go to bed with her. She really could care less about either of them.

This absurd comedy just keeps getting funnier as the two try everything to improve her disposition. Nothing works. They even bring the neighbor (Michel Serrault) in on their adventure. The three of them eat and discuss her situation while she sleeps peacefully.

It is when they go out to the country to work in a camp for poor children that they find Christian (Riton Liebman, a 13-year-old in his first film), a genius who finally makes her laugh.

It gets really funny when they can't remember who slept with her last night, and she suggests that she sleep alone. They really don't mind, as their friendship is now more important than her problem.

She ends up sleeping with Christian, and natures takes it's course. Well, she was no match for his superior intellect and he played on her emotions until he got what he wanted.

If it is possible, the film gets more absurd toward the ending. It was hilarious throughout, but the ending was magnificent.

Every actor in this film was superb!