Les Chinois à Paris

Wild, sarcastic French comedy by the irrepressible director/writer/actor Jean Yanne about what would happen to Paris and Parisians if Chinese Maoists invaded France. This rebellious satire -- ideally to be seen on a double bill with Godard's "La Chinoise" -- makes fun of very delicate political matters. There are plenty of innuendos about French collaborationism during WWII, but then it's almost always true that any occupying forces in a foreign culture will eventually engage in corruption and shady businesses, while some of the invaded natives will always find a way of profiting from the status quo. The subject is common to every invasion/ domination ever taken place (including right now you know where).

Wonderful cast, acid script and quick-tempered dialog are highlights in this irregular but imaginative film by Yanne, the man who made fun of Ceasar & Cleopatra on "Deux Heures moins le Quart avant Jésus Christ" (1972), the French Revolution in "Liberté, Égalité, Choucroute" (1975) and French TV industry in "Je te Tiens, Tu Me Tiens par la Barbichette" (1979). There are many memorable scenes; I particularly enjoyed the new "version" of Bizet's Carmen by Chinese opera singers, a riot!!!

In the days before the yoke of political correctness enslaved western Europe and the USA, there were many films calling into question political parties, affairs, régimes etc. This is one of those films, an acid "satirical comedy" on life in Paris under a hypothetical Chinese occupation of that city. In the end, the Chinese are obliged to leave because the French have led them down the sinister paths of over-fornication, over-eating and over-womanizing. The film is above all a satire of the collaboration of the French with the Nazi occupants in Paris during WW2. We see fair-weather friends, the resistance who does an about turn, those who get rich at the expense of everyone else etc, the clergy who turn a blind eye to the occupant etc. Everyone is attacked in this joyous satire. The Chinese make their headquarters in the Galeries Lafayette, an important and beautiful department store, many other buildings are requisitioned. Jacques François is the obsequious "Mediator" on problems between the Chinese and the French. Michel Serrault plays the ugliest rôle of the lot, the worst species of collaborator. Jean Yann who is the main star of the film converts his Notre Dame Sex Shop into a Notre Dame Chop Suey and gets rich at the expense of everyone else. At the time of the liberation of Paris in World War 2, women who had been suspected of "horizontal collaboration", i.e. fornicating with the Nazis, had their heads shaved in public - we see that in this film too. The film is overlong for my tastes and there is a rather soporific Opera spectacle which wasted a good few minutes. Nevertheless it has the merit of having been made and seen by the French public. I happened to be in France in 1974 when the film came out and remember all sorts of protests about it by the Chinese population in France !! It would't be possible to bring out such a film now as it would be attacked as being racist or some other similar rubbish. It has just been issued on DVD here as part of the "Jean Yanne Collection" and the picture quality is so good that you would think it had only been made yesterday.

The idea is brilliant (its the 70s and communist China invades capitalist France!), its cinematic application though occasionally walks with a limp.

Made in a time when being on the radical left and calling yourself "Maoist" was still a must, Jean Yanne paints an unflattering caricature of Parisians, utterly shallow in their political convictions, cynical, opportunistic, slavish and flabby pleasure-seekers. There is of course the obvious parallel with the Vichy regime who collaborated with the Nazis in WWII, which provides a dramatic undertow to an otherwise light-hearted satire. Both past and present are cleverly lampooned, unfortunately not so much the future (apart from the fact that the Chinese occupiers prefer to make a shopping mall their headquarters instead of one of the historical monumental buildings offered to them). I don't think the film-makers could even imagine the stealthy ways with wich China would eventually (and essentially) dominate the world economically by 2021. The movie wants to be more of a mirror for post-war France.

Technically it has quite a few pace issues, many scenes drag on needlessly with sloth-speed long take shots. The acting is not always good, especially by the young Japanese actor who plays the central role of Chinese general Pou-Yen. I read somewhere that the only ones that got upset with the film were the Chinese living in France (they should be the last to be upset). And the French were generally apathetic to it. Which justifies Jean Yanne's portrayal of them.