Adieu les cons

In a million years I never would've come up with the plot of Albert Dupontel's César-winning "Adieu les cons" ("Bye Bye Morons" in English). The plot combines focuses on underage pregnancy, stressful work, and political activism. It does so without turning silly or preachy.

The viewer may have noticed that the movie is dedicated to Terry Jones and features a brief appearance of Terry Gilliam. Despite Monty Python's renown, I wouldn't have predicted a French dramedy casting or commemorating any of the members.

Anyway, it's a fine movie. Basically, it's about righting the wrongs. I'll have to see more of Dupontel's movies, and in the meantime I recommend this one.

This movie is a great example of the misused talent available in the French cinema industry. Subsidies are used to produce movies with no substance.

The characters (including the police) are very caricatural and the story is very improbable, making it very hard to connect/relate to it.

After a first laugh with the attempted video, I spent the rest of the film searching for real emotions.

The main characters don't seem to have a home, don't sleep, eat or drink. No sense of time either.

Who is the movie for? Given the lack of imagination in the lines/simple personality of the characters, I'd say the primary audience would be teenagers? Then, why would you have such an inappropriate ending to trivialise a serious topic?

I watched this movie at the cinema and the disappointment was general. People were rushing out to go home.

So, this one doesn't deserve a Cesar for me, regardless of how stylised it is. A movie is a story/an experience that needs to be more meaningful than this.

Two characters on the edge, for different reasons, meet by chance, towards an inevitable end.

This could simultaneously be the summary plot of a romantic comedy written by Nora Ephon or a road movie written by Wim Wenders.

The result is a hybrid, written, performed and directed by Albert Dupontel, which, without ever claiming to be a work of author, the general tone is manifestly mainstream, in the rhythm, in the humor, in the glamor of the settings and characters, it does not leave to wink at the most creative universe of Monty Python, whether in the opening dedication to Terry Jones, or in Terry Gilliam's participation in a small but delicious role as a weapons salesman.

Adieu les Cons is not Monty Python, nor Nora Ephron, nor even Wim Wenders. It is Albert Dupontel, an experienced actor, director and screenwriter, who is well worth knowing, and signs a very interesting work here, on the most varied levels.

Goodbyes are meaningful with Albert Dupontel. After "Au-Revoir Là-Haut" (See You Up There) (2017), "Adieu les Cons" (Bye Bye Morons) (2020) is another farewell full of sense that Dupontel delivers with poetry, humour and a rebel spirit.

Bye Bye Morons takes place nowadays in France, a country he describes as crippled by its heavy bureaucracy, drowned in a consumer society that promotes individualism as a great value. Don't be mistaken. The film is in fact way less agitator than his first movies. I would call it a feelgood movie about people in need having their revenge on what the society imposes on them. It's trivial enough to entertain without needing to be too focused and at the same time, clever and inventive enough to catch all our attention and get the message behind it .

Albert Dupontel, the director, is a former stand-up comedian (who used to play outsiders of the society who did not adapt to the consumer society and who were ready to blow up the place for it), he's also a long time punk and anarchist sympathizer (it might help to understand the screenplay and the end of the movie) and now, he is an internationally recognized director (after his previous film See You Up There who was unquestionably a must see film of 2017). This film is a continuity with what he has always done, another farewell of his own to criticize our material society, individualism and the state repression of the most needing people. Beyond the story that is rather classical (a death diagnosized woman who wants to make a last good action before she dies ), what is joyful in this film is the constant humour Albert Dupontel resorts to, the hints to our perverted society and a colorful poetry that he disseminates throughout the film . One will recognize the nods to the recent police violence in France, to our over connected habits, our deshumanization in several places of our society . In this film, Dupontel shows a great sense of drama, with camera effects that serve the sense he wants to give , with a thin skinned sensitivity. All this sensitivity aspect would not have been possible without the amazing in-put of Virginie Effira, the "in fashion actress" of the French cinema over the last 5 years. Her work is once again remarkable in this movie. I believe the film would have lost part of his credits without her. However, to me, the main features of every Dupontel's film are his camera and graphics inventions. I guess the best example would be what he resorts to show the dehumanization of the administration, with the never ending spiral staircase as a representation of the vicious circle in which the characters find themselves and the never ending process that is required in a state administration. Another example is the rotating camera on several portraits of important managers at several levels of the administration to show how resortless are the characters of the movie. The reflection over the time passing by and the changes on the landscape in modern cities will certainly speak to many of us too. It is to me, this kind of details, all the camera effects and the graphics inventions that allow him to turn a rather classical story into a moving portrait of our individual consumer society. In that sense, this film is a success . I am more skeptical about the end of the movie (very foreseeable) and the photography of the film which has something to do with Amelie Poulain but which did not make that much effect on me. The red light through the film looks unreal, almost cheesy. Despite these little drawbacks, the film has the merit of bringing you into a special mood, a very Dupontel's atmosphere in which the two main characters (or the three, with the blind person who has got the funny part) kind of float over this colorful society that does not have time nor space for them. Bye Bye Morons has it all in its title, it is indeed a very good movie, well thought, done with creative effects and for this we hope it was just a good-bye and not an "adieu" from Dupontel who looks like he's got a lot to say left.

This dramatic comedy in the form of a corrosive fable is faithful to the themes of Dupontel, very critical of society, once again describing characters damaged by life. An original and well-crafted scenario and convincing and touching actors. All the themes go from abandoned children to the coldness of institutions through police violence and the inhumanity of the administration and the malaise of our contemporary societies where love and happiness in the individual struggle to express themselves. Suffocated by huge buildings, chemicals and everyone's confinement in front of screens from subway to work. A slap that will not please everyone but that will be like a mini catharsis for others. Thanks Albert.