Giù al nord

I saw this movie in Lille, France, two weeks after the premiere, and the movie theaters were full. Everyone wanted to see it. (After two weeks, 15 million viewers. That's a lot.) Even though they sometimes spoke Ch'ti it was quite easy to understand, and many parts would have been funny in any language. I really recommend everyone to see it, no matter if you speak French or not. Many of the jokes with words (jeu de mots) are only comprehensible if you speak French, but it's still great. The point with the movie isn't just the language, another aspect is the prejudices the Southerns have about the Northerns. Which can be found in many more countries than France. I really think that it's a movie everyone can find something to like about. Maybe the French over-hyped it, but it's still a superb movie.

I didn't know what to expect from Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. The story sounded all a bit cliché to me but since a lot of my friends in Belgium used their expressions after watching the movie I thought I give it a shot. And honestly I did like the movie. I don't know though if it will work for English speaking people or other languages than French in fact. Because if you don't understand or speak the French language a lot of humor will make no sense at all, even translated. Because most of the humor comes from the dialect they speak in the North of France, close to the Belgian border. For me it was all easy to understand since I'm from Belgium but I have my doubt it will have the same effect on other people not understanding French. Basically the story is a guy moving from the South of France to the North and of course he has the usual prejudice about it being cold there, and full of a bit retarded people. It's like somebody from California was forced to go live in Alaska. Kad Merad and Dany Boon are playing the main characters and they did a good job. Don't expect it to be a great story, it's just a funny view between the differences of North and South.

With 17 million viewers, the 1966 comedic hit "La Grande Vadrouille" reigned on the French box-office for more than four decades. But the king was finally dethroned by a sleeper hit with a catchy title "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis", starring Dany Boon and Kad Merad.

Both actors aren't on the same league than the iconic Louis de Funès and Bourvil duo. Yet for some reason, the film met with immediate success thanks to … call it as you want, Internet, buzz, word-to-mouth … something that definitely touched the hearts of 20 million viewers, one third of French population, which makes me realize that "La Grande Vadrouille" proportionally did better.

But let's not pollute this review with numeracy, like I said for "Intouchables", the film benefited from the virtual circle of success, becoming a phenomenon, something people came at less to see it, than to see what's so great about it. And as an aspiring film-maker, I've got to hand it to Dany Boon for having have made a film with such an effect. Where "Welcome to the Ch'tis" worked, many others have failed, especially those that tried to follow some guidelines for a successful comedy, I guess what the "Ch'tis" have is called sincerity and good intentions, a sort of Capraesque 'feel-good' quality, praising the unique charm of small little towns and their caring and loving inhabitants.

It's sincere because the film is set in the North, which is to France what the Midwest is to USA. To avoid repetition, I invite you to check my review of "Les Tuche" to get my idea about the region. Anyway, "Ch'tis" (referring to the inhabitants) had a story to tell, the story of a cocky and arrogant manager sleeping on the laurels of his success under Mediterranean sun until he's 'promoted' to the North, a place full of hard-drinking rednecks with incomprehensible accents, and a sky depressingly gray. The film does exaggerate the reputation of the North and make it sound like a sort of doomed place, I guess this is to be taken in a humorous light, a running gag that should have culminated with Michel Galabru's cameo, describing with his Southern accent, North as if it was a haunted mansion.

But as the singer said (quote from the 'Tuche' review) : "People from the North have in their eyes the blue lacking in their setting and in their heart the sun that is not shining". And that's the shining Philippe (Kad Merad) will discover. It's a coming-to-realization that thankfully happens very quickly, revealing that the man was prejudiced but not a bigot, he was probably troubled by his marital problems and sleeping in the house of his employee, a gentle postman named Antoine (Dany Boon) didn't help, nor facing the menacing stare of his mother reminding me of Agnes Skinner, and played by one of the most defining figures of the North: Line Renaud.

The breakfast is rather disastrous full of Maroualle (a particularly smelly local cheese) cheap coffee, and a series of dialogs whose accents are, so to speak, accentuated to have the same effects on the laughs. My wife, coming from the North, laughed more than me. There had to be a film about the Ch'tis, a sort of adventure in a new world with a heart inside. The ice is finally broken when Pierre decides to follow Antoine during his workday, to prevent him from drinking, naturally he ends up as drunk as him, contributing to the film's defining picture, an enchanting moment of male-bonding, friendship and mutual understanding. I can't blame a film for trying to evoke so many positive feelings.

But the plot weakens when Philippe tries to hide the truth from his wife (Zoé Felix) and to make it worse, she decides to visit him, and then comes a sequence belonging to another film, where all the local people act according to the very stereotypes that insult them, and the wife buys it (not too long, but still). Since the point is to prove that they're not dumb dim-witted people, would they take part of such a senseless joke if they weren't? The climax occurs when Antoine finally find the nerve to declare his love from the belfry where he works as the bell-ringer (what was so difficult anyway?), and as if Phillipe's bell was rang in the same time, he takes the trademark Post yellow trunk to the South in order to apologize to his wife. This is when the film gets too conventional for such a hit, and I felt like cheated a bit.

But I could have forgiven that if it wasn't for one thing, one thing the film lacks: a punch line. There's no comedy without a simple joke, a smile, a laugh at the end, but as if we hadn't enough emotions, it had to feature the cringe-worthy sight of Philippe weeping like a kid. And Antoine's triumph "see, we cry twice, when we come and when we leave", all right, when he told him that on the beach, we could see that coming from a mile, so why not just make an effort to surprise us? A film that ambitious could have at least been kind enough to have a small, a frail, a timid little twist. It's unfortunate when the funniest scene of the film I spoil (let's just say, it features a wheelchair) happens so soon in the beginning.

And the polemics raised when the film only grabbed one nomination for Best Screenplay earning the Academy of Césars an accusation of snobbishness, against popular cinema, which is not totally untrue, but still, how many nominations "The Visitors" had, or "Amelie", or "Intouchables" these are far superior film that deserved to be the number one. "Bievenue Chez les Ch'tis" was probably released at the right time, about the right place, and its genuineness touched people. But this is far from being the greatest French comedy ever, simply the highest-grossing.

Dany Boon's "Bienvenue chez les ch'tis" ("Welcome to the Sticks" in English) reminded me of "My Cousin Vinny" and "Doc Martin", with a big-city person coming to a small town and having trouble understanding the mores. In this case, a man from southern France gets sent to a small town in the north and having trouble with their accents (to say the least). While there are a lot of challenges for the guy to overcome, he's just as foreign to the townspeople.

In addition to the humor, the movie also looks at the stereotypes that people can have of those from certain regions (i.e., in the US, northerners tend to view southerners as ignorant yahoos). It's not the greatest French movie that I've ever seen, but it does a good job addressing the prejudices that the people throughout France have of each other. You just know that the French have countless stereotypes of foreigners. I recommend it.

A really, really charming film. Charming being the word for movies with really simple plots, very down-to-earth stakes, and the ability to leave you with a big G-rated smile on your face afterwards. If you like cross-cultural fish-out-of-water movies such as My Big, Fat Greek Wedding, you're going to love this story of a postmaster who gets reassigned to the apparently misunderstood (in many senses) northern region of France, and how lives change accordingly.

But what really impressed me the most were the subtitles. The English subtitles amazingly captured all the nuances of the convoluted wordplay that was obviously happening on screen. This becomes an even more impressive feat when you consider that much of the verbal fun of the movie comes from the various misunderstandings between the French-speaking lead character and the folks who speak in the northern provincial "Schticks" dialect. Because of this added layer of complexity, I realized that capturing these dynamics cannot be the product of any ordinary clerical translation job.

And it turns out I was right. I later read that the director, Dany Boon, actually took an active role in ensuring that all the subtitles for the different languages properly and lovingly reflected the nuances and intent of the on screen banter. With truly impressive results.

So kudos to Boon for paying attention to this particular detail. Oftentimes, foreign audiences miss out on much of the seeming in-jokes that movies play for their local audiences. "Schticks" made it a point to share its world with everyone else. Great job.