Ma Loute

Binoche drags this movie down. Most of the other participants, especially Luchini, manage to actually be funny, while she does a tone-deaf pantomime and kind of walks all over everyone else whenever she's in a scene. The misanthropy that permeated 'Li'l Quinquin' is also present here, with Dumont seeming to say that everywhere you turn, you run into idiots. The poor are barely human at all, the middle class is a bunch of bumbling idiots, while the "upper" class is delusional and degenerate. Some of the cinematography is quite beautiful, with an almost 3D quality to it.

Only French can do a movie like this !

Cast is brilliant !

It's a dark comedy, quite absurd and... very different !

The locations are a magnificent part of France !

Anyone who doubted that Bruno Dumont could do comedy might have been surprised by "P'tit Quinquin" which was weirdly funny, surreal and highly imaginative. However, if you skipped "P'tit Quinquin" and have come straight to "Slack Bay", then your doubts will have been confirmed for this bit of slapstick is about as funny as an appendectomy. The setting is the Northern French coast in the summer of 1910 and follows the far-from-hilarious exploits of three sets of characters; a well-to-to family, there on vacation, a local family of muscle-gatherers and a couple of policemen, one very large and fat, the other small and thin, there to investigate some mysterious disappearances.

The policemen are obviously based on Laurel and Hardy, though it's unlikely this pair will raise a smile let alone a laugh. Dumont's idea of comedy is to have most of his characters fall down at regular intervals though some do take to levitating by the time the film is over. There is, of course, a sicker and more Dumontesque sensibility at work here, since the muscle-gatherers are also a family of cannibals, ('Anyone want more foot', says the mother to her sons), who are killing off the tourists and eating them.

The star, for want of a better word, of this rubbish is Juliette Binoche, cast as a comic grande-dame. At least she aligns herself with Dumont's vision which, in this case, isn't saying much. Visually the film is very beautiful and like "P'tit Quinquin" is weird enough not be boring but that is about all you can say in its favour. This one is for Dumont completists only.

Bruno Dumont made a Bruno Dumont film in his original region with real inhabitants. Like Li'l Quinquin, some actors are amateurs, some are pros, sadly...

There is no real plot here, no story. Just some days in the North of the France in the 1910's. There are some poetry, comedy, but all of the film is made by the situation of the actors, amateur or pro. The professional are to overdo : Binoche and Luchini are sometimes good, often to much, and so bad... The amateurs voices are always hard to understand, even if your are french. Maybe with the subtitle will be better.

I like this film, the photo are not so good (first film for the director in digital) the colors are usually blurry. There is no real story, the actors are inaudible or to overdo, it's hard to understand, the end are (for me ) not good... But ... i like it ! It's funny, shabby, unhealthy, beautiful, full of love, with no mockery. The director like is region, the people from there (like the Redneck in the USA) and made fun with their reputations. It's a little jewel of burlesque, like a Belgian film.

It's a unusual film, don't except a traditional thing. Take It As It Comes.

I've not seen any other films by Bruno Dumont, so I don't know how typical this is, but it's the strangest film I've seen for a while.

Whether one finds it funny or not I guess will be down to personal taste, but mostly I found the quiet humour to be appropriate to the style, with only Binoche's over-the-top performance striking a jarring note. Many of the cast (the fat detective in particular) were clearly having a great time, and the mix of serious issues and disparate characters worked well for me.

The cinematography was also great and, although there were many loose ends and perhaps 20-30 minutes too much in the running time, there was enough plot and a fairly satisfying resolution. Just go with it.