La Deuxième Étoile

"Twice sweeter ....twice funnier"!the poster reads ,wishful thinking indeed! 8 years after the first film "La Première Etoile" ,the continuing story of the same family.

Hindsight displays the charm of the 2009 effort. People with minds full of received ideas have often limited ideas. "Black people can't ski" "skiing,it's the white's business" Writer/actor /director Lucien Jean -Baptiste based his movie on it: Winter sports are almost unthinkable for an unemployed black lazy dreamer and his family;cut to the quick,the father takes up the challenge :he will go out of his way to take his family to a ski resort.

Ten years after (or almost so) ,the family became middle-class ,and all the actors, black and white,ham it up all along a nothing movie. The new character ,an officer , played by talented Roland Giraud is so clichéd it's almost unbearable: the aging man who has never forgotten his daughter for marrying a black man but realizes the husband is a much better father than he was, how many times has one seen him?

Much of the film is devoted to a stupid "snow star" contest for morons ,with hosts hamming it up ,if it's possible,even more than the principals;add a Christmas party which is nothing but filler and there you are.

The film contains one short magic moment : the family arrives in the chalet where they are to spend their Winter sports holiday ;there lives widower Henri (pop singer Michel Jonaz who has taken on his role of landlord)welcomes them : we see a photograph of his late wife ,the marvelous Bernadette Laffont who blew everyone off the screen in the first effort :the actress died some years ago and she did deserve a little tribute.Her scenes with Firmine Richard were simple effective proof positive of the stupidity of racism .

The new version,a critical and commercial failure, has nothing to offer :you'd better stay away from it and pick up the director's 2009 film.