Louise-Michel

Going in with no expectation (I did not even know it was a comedy) I was very surprised to find it was genuinely funny with several laugh out loud moments.

For the first twenty minutes it comes across as another French kitchen sink drama - you know the drill, poor workers feeling oppressed by their insensitive managers. Then it turns and the situation set pieces come along and the film becomes amusing than downright funny, but all in a "quirky" gallows humour that some people will either love or hate.

The best way to describe this film is to pretend its in the same universe as Napoleon Dynamite or Fargo. The film has some very dark humour that often revolves around death but at the same time it has superb insights like the tomfoolery of tax shelter shell companies and PO Boxes.

What I liked about the characters is that they are oblivious to their own idiocy and Yolande Moreau (Louise) and Bouli Lanners (Michel) bounce off each other superbly.

One of the best comedies I have seen in some time.

Yes, a really anarchist film, it attacks the financial sharks who are ruining our society. This is the story of two underdogs who are going to try to strike straight at the head of this mafia. It is really enjoyable as we wish so often that we could do that. The "red virgin" anarchist Louise Michel- one of the first women to wear trousers - is also underlined by the sexual ambiguity of the characters. And also a nice touch is added by using the music of Daniel Johnston a musician as weird as the heroes of this film. The acting is perfect and the dark humour is great. Obviously this is a sort of militant film and so this film has a message, but why shouldn't film makers express their opinions ? It makes a good change from the bland stuff that we are served everyday.

"Louise-Michel" is an independent French black comedy, where being "alternative" becomes something for its own sake, and at the end we can't make out where the point is. The first part shows a sarcastic, sometimes alienating, mix of contrasting situations and moods, arousing contrasting feelings, from fun to sadness: if we think of the contrast between the dying cousin and really funny scene with the dog, we fell disoriented. The overall tone may appear too sardonic, lacking sensitivity, but I thought it was something searched for in order to avoid too melodramatic and attitude, when portraying the mutability of human life, with its sudden turns from joy to sadness. But as the story progresses, the movie goes deeper and deeper into the purest nonsense and it is almost impossible to find a meaning, except the total absence of meaning in human life. The scene where Louise and Michel dance drunk after having killed some people reminded me of the two protagonists of "Waiting for Godot", the most representative piece of drama of the theatre of the absurd by T. Beckett, where two tramps treat themselves violently and dance in a complete world of pure nonsense, where absurdity prevails. Used as I am to make out some sense in everything I experience and also in every movie I see, I think this movie prevents me from doing this, being the denial of any sense at the core of its intention. I don't know if the final scene may have been devised as a kind of redemption from all the evil we have seen, but I did not perceive it as such, being moreover mixed up with some pointless gender confusion. Rather ridiculous.

Just how strange are Belgians? For some reason, this country's film makers are unmatched in creating extremely weird or dysfunctional character pieces like 'Aaltra' (same director as this one), 'Ex-Drummer', 'L'Iceberg' or 'Man bites Dog'. If you liked those, you'll love this.

'Louise-Michel' is a cheap-looking movie which is drifting away from its subject matter in an entertaining, if confusing way. The story is quite straightforward: ex-convict overweight lady with a surprise hires hapless wannabe security guard to off her boss after her company is shut down. The problem: the boss isn't really the boss, and pretty hard to identify...

Nobody here is much of a hero or sympathetic, but the basic idea is just plain wonderful: sticking the blame for economic misery is pretty hard when the economy is global. Naming the two main characters after French anarchist Louise Michel (as evident by a quote of hers in the end) is another funny little idea. The problem - if it is one - may be that there are so many quirky little details in this film that the story becomes obscure. You'll find crematory humor (maybe a film first), 9/11 conspiracy theory, gender confusion, a short painful pun on illegal immigration, abuse of terminally ill people with a final twist, but also absolutely divine moments like the difficulty of shooting a dog, how to use a briefcase as a hare-trap, or locating a company that only exists as a letter box.

All in all a nice little film which could have used a bit of trimming, but certainly good for a bag of sarcastic laughs.

Louise has been working for a factory for many years. When the factory packs up overnight she and her former coworkers formulate a plan to spend the small amount of compensation money in a somewhat less than legal way - they want to hire a hit-man to finish off the boss.

Set in a typical dark and dreary high-unemployment village this beginning of a story is a solid base for a very twisted comedy. It sets off at a good speed and keeps rolling forward and when it finally ends it does so with a fitting ending. Granted, some bits are high on clichés, but it gets away with that because some other bits are so good they count as counterweights for that.

The choice of actors is great - especially the female lead character. She plays her character so well it almost comes across as a natural second skin. The male lead is great too and their combination works wonders, they just fit really well.

9 out of 10 oh-no-you-did-not-do-that moments