La grande abbuffata

What can be a better protest against hedonism than to kill oneself in the most hedonistic way: to sate oneself with food and luxury and sex to death? So four old friends gather together in the luxuriant family villa belonging to the one of the participants and start devouring their way to exotic quietus, I should warn you though, the spectacle isn't for the hungry, and however difficult the task may seem it turns out to be quite feasible. What is the most great in this movie is its thick atmosphere of absurdity and surreality of everything happening on the screen and at the same time a verisimilitude of this occurrence. This movie also brilliantly managed to catch a zeitgeist of its epoch. At the time the film was announced to be a scandal of the year.

Marco Ferreri is one of my all time favourite directors, for both his fearlessness in pushing boundaries and his piercing originality. Ferreri's greatest achievement was making relentlessly intellectual films that also managed to entertain. While many other European directors could get caught up in their own genius, Marco Ferreri was never pretentious enough to forget about his audience.

La Grande Bouffe is one of Ferreri's best and most notorious films. The premise is infamous, four friends gather at a country mansion with the intention of literally eating themselves to death. When this becomes tiresome they hire three prostitutes and invite the local school teacher to join them. This is not a film that follows a linear narrative, instead it expertly crafts a sense of atmosphere from a series of acutely observed vignettes. There are enough unforgettable images and surreal happenings in this film to make Salvador Dali green with envy. The meat garden, Andrea and Michel's flatulent love making and Philippe's relationship with his nanny are just three that come to mind. There is genius at work here, this is not an exercise in empty symbolism but a disturbing slice of modern life.

The impact of La Grande Bouffe has not wearied with age. The sex scenes are possibly less confronting (although Marcello's inventive use of a champagne bottle still raises eyebrows) but the film's psychological impact has not been dulled. The characters' ruthless pursuit of death is all the more disturbing given their unadulterated appreciation for life's pleasures. For a film with such disturbing content, La Grande Bouffe is also effortlessly entertaining. Ferreri somehow manages to balance the building tension with black humour, raunchy sex scenes and even budding romance.

This is probably a good time to mention the cast. Ferreri has gathered together a who's who of European cinema. Ferreri regulars like Mastroianni and Tognazzi combine brilliantly with French heavyweights like Piccoli and Noiret. Andrea Ferreol more than matches it with these acting giants. She deserves significant credit for her illuminating performance as the open minded school teacher with the appetite of a blue whale.

La Grande Bouffe is intelligent, disturbing and unrelenting. Most importantly, it is also entirely non-judgemental. Ferreri would never insult his audience by suggesting to them what they should think. If only more modern directors had taken note.

The aircraft pilot Marcello, the chef Ugo, the TV choreographer Michel and the judge Phillipe decide to terminate their lives with a great pleasure, eating and having sex with three prostitutes and one school teacher invited to participate in their orgy.

I watched this unforgettable film in the 70's and I was very disturbed with this impressive metaphoric movie. In Brazil, it remained unreleased on video until a couple of months ago, when fortunately it was 'rescued' and released on DVD by the Brazilian distributor 'Versátil', specialized in masterpieces such as Fellini, Rosselini and Visconti. Now I have just had the chance to watch again this weird and daring movie about the decay of the society of consumption, empty and compulsive, searching for "sex and food" (material goods) much more than they need. The main characters use their Christian names. This movie is also a great black humor comedy. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Comilança" ("The Binge")

The two other Marco Ferreri films I've seen, Dillinger Is Dead and Bye Bye Monkey, I found utterly boring, I must admit. I was a little wary of La grande bouffe, though I had always wanted to see it. I've always been drawn to stories where a group of people (or more usually a couple) lock themselves up together and slowly kill themselves, or screw each others brains out. In this film, four men (Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi, all playing characters who use the actors' real first names) come together in a palatial estate to screw prostitutes and eat themselves to death. No real reason is given. The prostitutes don't make it very long. The constant feasting disgusts them, and they leave. The only woman who does stay is a Reubenesque teacher named Andrea (Andrea Ferreol), who is intrigued by both the food and sex (unlike the other women, the idea of food and sex together turns her on). This movie is a tad too slow. At it's best, though, it's fascinating and hilariously gross. Food seems quite unappetizing after about a half hour of this. I loved the performances. Definitely of interest.

A pilot, a cook, a choreographer, and a judge (+ a teacher!). Every key aspect of the western culture is present in this brilliant, surreal farce. The only ideology the men and the poor Andréa hold is one of hedonistic consumption of food and sex. The prostitutes are the sensible ones, leaving out of the game in time. They represent the "outsiders", people who refuse to take part in the destructive lifestyle, and are saved.

If you hate symbolism, you might watch this as a very funny and brilliantly acted comedy. If you don't mind the symbolism, every time you watch it again you'll find new depths in Ferreri's witty commentary of modern western lifestyle. Personally I don't mind it, hence 10/10. Belongs to my top 10 of all times.