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Buffet froid

  • 1979
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
7K
YOUR RATING
Buffet froid (1979)
Watch Bande-annonce [OV]
Play trailer2:10
1 Video
64 Photos
Dark ComedyFarceComedyCrimeDramaThriller

Alphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who has killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a series... Read allAlphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who has killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a series of events in a surrealist world.Alphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who has killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a series of events in a surrealist world.

  • Director
    • Bertrand Blier
  • Writer
    • Bertrand Blier
  • Stars
    • Gérard Depardieu
    • Bernard Blier
    • Jean Carmet
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Bertrand Blier
    • Writer
      • Bertrand Blier
    • Stars
      • Gérard Depardieu
      • Bernard Blier
      • Jean Carmet
    • 35User reviews
    • 23Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Bande-annonce [OV]
    Trailer 2:10
    Bande-annonce [OV]

    Photos64

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    + 58
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    Top cast18

    Edit
    Gérard Depardieu
    Gérard Depardieu
    • Alphonse Tram
    Bernard Blier
    Bernard Blier
    • Inspecteur Morvandieu…
    Jean Carmet
    Jean Carmet
    • L'assassin…
    Denise Gence
    • L'hôtesse…
    Marco Perrin
    Marco Perrin
    • Le maçon…
    Jean Benguigui
    Jean Benguigui
    • L'homme en noir…
    Carole Bouquet
    Carole Bouquet
    • Le jeune femme
    Jean Rougerie
    Jean Rougerie
    • Eugène Léonard, le témoin
    Liliane Rovère
    Liliane Rovère
    • Josyane
    Bernard Crombey
    • Le toubib
    • (as Bernard Crommbey)
    • …
    Michel Fortin
    • L'escogriffe
    Roger Riffard
    • Le garde de la tour
    Maurice Travail
    • Le garde du terrain vague
    Nicole Desailly
    • La femme divorcée
    Pierre Frag
    • L'homme divorcé
    Eric Vasberg
    • Insp. Cavana
    • (as Eric Wasberg)
    Geneviève Page
    Geneviève Page
    • La veuve…
    Michel Serrault
    Michel Serrault
    • Le quidam
    • (uncredited)
    • …
    • Director
      • Bertrand Blier
    • Writer
      • Bertrand Blier
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews35

    7.27K
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    Featured reviews

    9R_O_U_S

    Surreal and brilliant

    I won't go into the plot, it's not important, except to say that it centres on a "friendship" between three men. One may have murdered someone in the subway. One is a probably homicidal detective. And the third murdered the first man's wife. This is a French film, and it's hard to see it working well in any other language or setting. The sudden shift to the countryside is a little jarring, but that would be my only minor criticism of the film.
    6dromasca

    dream or absurd or both?

    'Buffet Froid' made in 1979 by Bertrand Blier can be seen as an almost perfect antithesis of the films of the French New Wave that had burst into the cinema world two decades ago. If the New Wave was a Reformation, this film belongs to the Counter-Reformation. Formal simplicity is opposed by abstract sophistication. Lively street scenes are opposed by empty streets at night or lofts transported from New York to the sky-scrappers in the Defense district of Paris. The characters drawn from life are opposed by characters descending from Beckett's or Ionesco's theater. Sincerity is opposed by lack of emotion. Naturalism is opposed by absurd. But, maybe it's all a dream?

    The film starts with a ten minute scene that takes place in a Paris subway station. Two characters entertain a dialogue that could be extracted from 'En attendant Godot'. It's about the dreams, or better said the nightmares that haunt one of them (played by Gérard Depardieu). In the dream he is a wanted assassin, followed but never caught by the police. Does the dream start here? Or maybe we are in a dream in the beginning, as Parisians know, the La Defense subway station is never completely empty, not even at night. Further action includes corpses, fast consoled widows, car chases, assassination attempts through music, wine bottles and canned food. Nothing makes too much sense. The characters act like robots that do a lousy job, both socially and emotionally.

    The film has an interesting aesthetics, even if too obviously programmatic. Dialogues are fun, even if they seem a little retro nowadays. Existentialism and absurd theater need landmarks to be appreciated and enjoyed all the way. These are missing in this movie, which looks more like an absurd theater show filmed in the '70s. As a spectator I can not fail to appreciate the acting performances of Depardieu, Bernard Blier, and others, but I would have preferred them to be used for better causes.
    8Horror-yo

    Excellent, coherent mixture of Nihilism and Humor

    It takes a special kind of quality to make anything that is bleak and absurd and empty into something that truly holds up without being complete intellectualism/artistic onanism. This film achieves that.

    It also takes a special kind of quality to make anything completely remote and arbitrary funny. This film achieves that. It's quite hilarious at times because it's so fresh, and random and unexpected although it's utterly consistent with itself.

    Depardieu is awesome as always and more than any other buys into the shenanigans of the concept brilliantly, it's like he's a real life person although his entire character is most perfectly ridiculous and impossible.

    There are fine symbolic psychological traits that bring about some kind of aesthetic to the film (Blier's character and his aversion for music). Moreover, the completely barren urban landscapes, seemingly perpetually nocturnal, (that vacant building) and the eerie absence of anyone but the protagonists during any one scene bring this nightmarish facet to the whole which adds to the comic absurdism. It's like they're all alone in their strange old little planet, and it doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest.

    Top notch. Also, the pacing and format are just right. At under 1hr30 this is pure efficient cinema that delivers the goods and don't spoil that fine taste from the beginning. Ending is on par with the rest of it. Very well done. Rare quality. 8.5/10.
    8sansay

    cool and totally out of this world

    I went in really having no idea what this movie was about. I do that sometimes so as to get more surprise, in essence to get more out of the experience. Well in this case I was not only surprised but even amazed. Nothing that I was expecting was coming out as I thought... ohhh yes, except at the end. The final was the only logical way to conclude such a strange story. And interestingly enough, that too goes against common sense, whereas in regular movie, the final is often an attempt to surprise the viewers.

    Of course this is a farce, of course it makes no sense whatsoever. But the point is that it's funny and clearly out of this world. So, once you get the idea, all you have to do is let yourselves be carried by the flow. In fact, after a while I was even playing with possible next victims... but I was fooled all the time. I am just too Cartesian, hehehe!

    At any rate, it does take a special sense of humor to appreciate this movie. The acting by all the seasoned actors is just right, cool, no exaggeration, just enough to get the story moving along, however weird it might be.

    In conclusion, this is a very unusual and therefore interesting movie.
    8alice liddell

    Bunuel, farce and the policier? Yes please.

    Imagine a crime film without all the usual elements - a beginning (crime), middle (investigation) and end; a guilty criminal and an investigative detective; a femme fatale who is punished; a restoration of order. BUFFET FROID is the nightmare flipside of the policier, where the hero is an unemployed philosopher, who may or may not be a murderer, who befriends his wife's killer, and his neighbour, a detective who sanctions paid homicide and is trapped in a plot where the answer he seeks is himself. Every revelation leads to further obfuscation and instead of the restoration of order is its destruction.

    The film plays like a futuristic thriller directed by Bunuel - and if Blier's ultimate timidity means it's never quite as good as that, it's still a remarkable achievement in mainstream, never mind generic, cinema, and very, very funny.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The film had 777,127 admissions in France which was considered a failure. It has however since gained cult status.
    • Goofs
      When Insp. Morvandieu fires his gun, for the first time and at the end, he shoots 10 rounds in a row without reloading, using a 6-chamber revolver.
    • Quotes

      L'assassin: Lots of murders lately?

      Inspecteur Morvandieu: Things aren't bad.

      L'assassin: Got the guilty guys?

      Inspecteur Morvandieu: As few as possible. They are more dangerous in prison than out.

      Alphonse Tram: Why?

      Inspecteur Morvandieu: They contaminate the innocent.

    • Connections
      Referenced in Merci la vie (1991)
    • Soundtracks
      String Quartet No. 1 in C minor Op. 51/1
      Written by Johannes Brahms

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    FAQ15

    • How long is Buffet Froid?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 19, 1979 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Official site
      • StudioCanal International (France)
    • Language
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Buffet Froid
    • Filming locations
      • Lavars, Isère, France(bridge and rowboat scene)
    • Production companies
      • Sara Films
      • France 2 (FR2)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 33m(93 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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