Preparate i fazzoletti

This Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar winner from France is quite atypical material for such an accolade (though, admittedly, there was not much competition that year): not only is it a sex comedy, but a potentially controversial one involving both a ménage-a'-trois and paedophelia (hence, the title's suggestion of sentimentality could not be farther off the mark)! Being familiar with the equally 'naughty' GOING PLACES (1974) from the same team of writer-director Blier and male stars Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere, I knew more or less what to expect: the end result, then, is just as entertaining (and overstretched) but also, perhaps, a tad superior. Genuinely original and undeniably very funny, the films sees husband-and-wife Depardieu and Carole Laure going through a crisis because of the latter's perennial depression and resultant frigidity; the former sees a way out by asking perfect stranger Dewaere to become her lover, in the hope of relighting the woman's dormant passion. Still, while the two like each other, they begin to mope over their disservice to Depardieu and, soon, it's back to square one for Laure! The narrative takes an episodic form, wherein the trio first meet a flustered green-grocer – a pre-LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (1978) Michel Serrault – and manage to turn him into a lover of classical music (Dewaere is a Mozart devotee') and, later, a precocious teenage camper (Dewaere is also an instructor of Physical Education) who, picked on by his peers for being the son of an industrialist, is taken under her wing by Laure…and ends up being the one to provide sexual gratification for the unemotional woman, even getting her pregnant! The male stars – who find themselves bonding amid such an unusual turn-of-events – are delightful as the perplexed but earnest lovers; Laure, however, has the difficult task of balancing attractiveness with an ordinary and downright sickly demeanor. Perhaps the biggest visual gags involve the identical sweaters worn by most of the male principals from time to time (Laure gets over her particular hang-ups through knitting in the nude!) as well as the reaction of the boy's parents to his escapade – the mother becomes an amnesiac when she overturns with her car on giving chase (and eventually hooks up with Serrault!) and, following the son's announcement of Laure's impending motherhood by his doing (the woman having ultimately taken employment/residence in their house), the father is reduced to a wheelchair-bound vegetable. Incidentally, the very next day after watching GET OUT YOUR HANDKERCHIEFS, I acquired another well-regarded Blier/Depardieu title i.e. BUFFET FROID (1979) – to eventually go along with two more films of theirs I own but have yet to watch (TENUE DE SOIREE' [1986], albeit in French only, and TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU [1989])

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.

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.

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.

"Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" is an excellent piece of storytelling and a refreshing film. It flows freely and is full of interesting and engaging twists, one of which is surprising but serves well in tying it all together.

Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere play two gentlemen at the mercy of an oddly ailing woman, Solange. Doctors are no help, and the two men obviously mean little to her, but they keep at it and decide that what she needs is a child, which she cannot give birth to.

Things happen and as the story unfolds, it brings the viewer in closer and examines happiness from an offbeat angle. If nothing else, "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" is fun and engaging and should not be missed.