Camping sauvage

Saw this in VOF (Version Originale Français) last night, so caveat emptor -- I have no idea how it will translate, or if the jokes will make it through dubbing/subtitling. You've been warned!

On the whole, a solid effort with lots of laughs and some interesting directorial choices. Sometimes I was left wondering if the director was just throwing in everything but the kitchen sink to impress the audience with his oh-so-cute clever ideas, but the gimmicks are spaced out enough that it comes across as charming rather than contrived.

The plot is, of course, ludicrously thin. This works in the movie's favour, though, because it gives a lot of latitude to let the humour play out. Basically a paint-by-numbers fish-out-of-water script, Guy Lepage lifts it out of potential problems by delivering a rock-solid performance that finds the good precarious balance between baffled straight man and comic anal-retentive protagonist.

It's light, and a great way to fritter away an evening. My only real problems were the occasional dip into toilet humour, and the fact that I found the lead female character more horrifying than attractive, and the plot of the movie rotates around her being immensely desirable.

Small quibbles, though. With low expectations and decent French, you're in for a fun couple of hours.

I have been living in Toronto (Ontario) for 23 years. Francophones in this province are famished for Quebec cinema because we see fewer Quebec films than are available, say, in Singapore. Ontario culture is not exactly welcoming to foreign films when those "foreigners" are Quebeckers and live just next door. Luckily, Radio-Canada showed this film three nights ago and I was pleasantly surprised. You see, I have a sister-in-law who works for Telefilm Canada, the government agency whose job it is to finance Canadian productions. She always tells me about the Canadian films that are chosen each year to represent our country in film festivals. I guess I couldn't count on her to tell me about this film – which she has never even seen, of course. As far as I'm concerned, even though this film may be considered "a vulgar popular comedy unworthy to represent us in other countries", I think it is in fact a very well made comedy, well written, well acted and especially well directed. All the situations are certified clichés: a murder witness who has to be relocated to escape his enemies, dumb bikers, a hit man, the "fish out of water" angle (a cultured financial analyst who has to adapt himself to redneck culture in record time, etc.). But I find this film so well crafted and stylistically advanced that I can forgive the rest. To make a film like this one, one has to have seen, appreciated, studied and assimilated all the films of the Coen Brothers, the comedies of Barry Sonnenfeld, all the Tarantino horrors and even a good deal of popular Asian cinema (cf. "Kung Fu Hustle") and have retained only their positive aspects while eliminating their more sadistic, cruel and bloodthirsty elements. As one who has never understood (never!) the charm of Guy A. Lepage, I found him almost sympathetic and certainly a competent actor in this role. I also found that this film, in its technical aspect, is an important step towards the professionalism of Quebec films: photography, music, special effects, marketing. It allows us to look forward to the survival and even the prosperity of our regional cinema in the face of the certified imbecility of US films which are more and more preoccupied with the representation of sadism, violence, torture, war, cars, firearms, superheroes in long underwear, teenage body fluids, CGI, the adaptation of comic strips and video games and the sterile cult of celebrity.

This film fancies itself as being a Canadian's answer to the infamous blockbuster. And, at that, it achieves what it strives for, which is to entertain without having depth, or groundbreaking features to it...

It's a funny hoot of a movie. Mainly laughing at the difference of social classes found in the french speaking province of Quebec. The tale is a simple one; a greedy, compulsively well-spoken, upper-class finance mogul is inadvertently caught up witnessing to a hit-n-run by a known and very dangerous gangster. This man is then relocated to a very kitshy Camping ground. There, he must be as inconspicuous as possible, in order not to arouse any doubts, or attract any suspicious men there.

Although a predictable premise, this movie is well constructed, with rhythmic editing, one that compares to Snatch in its crazy unexpected twists. It also has a series of references which, for the ones like myself who know of them, are interesting to pin-point.

It keeps the average story engaging enough to be enjoyable.

The main aspect making this picture a more than typical summer sweet treat is the very lively acting by all the cast. Their range is not very far and apart, and the characters they display are mostly tiresome clichés, but they are well done nonetheless, showing no pretensions or bore, and they manage cool chuckles, they also stay in character, which is unexpected.

The most fun this movie has to offer, in my opinion, is the perfect soundtrack recorded by Indo-Canadian techno genius Ramachandra Borcar, better known in Quebec as Ramasutra, or D.J. Ram. His soundtrack is, as all of his compositions are, bold, eclectic, reminiscent of older film themes. Here, he uses much more ambiance and lesser harsh tones, as opposed to his own independent work. All music being similar, they wonderfully work the actions on screen, and as I see it, they stand perfectly on their own very strong merit.

A fresh and fun Saturday night movie...