Les galettes de Pont-Aven

Who said what goes on below the waist can't be visually entertaining?

Well, Russ Meyer did. Russ who? You know... the king of the funny skin flick whom Roger Ebert collaborated with for the making of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls". Meyer was known for his lifelong fascination for women with big breasts and I'm curious whether watching Joel Seria's classic "Cookies" (or "The Wafers of Pont-Aven") would have changed his mind a little.

The film features an average man who just shares an equal infatuation for the parts of female anatomy that go below the waist and no I don't mean legs. "Cookies" doesn't ask you how far fetishism can work as a story premise but how far a man could actually go, sacrificing his modest accomplishments in order to satisfy his fetishism. Behind its comedic façade, this is a movie that takes matters of flesh very seriously to the point of being one of the truest depictions of the lust for life inherent in art. This is not just the work of an artist, but a work about a true artist, one named Henri Serin and played by the so-underrated Jean-Pierre Marielle. Before I go on, a few words about Marielle who sadly left us in 2019.

There is a convention that the French average Joe should be bald and spots a moustache that honors his Gallic roots; on that spectrum of depiction, you had the two polar opposite: Gérard Jugnot played the short one who could never rely on his looks but whose constant struggle against adversity made him somewhat heroic on a shadenfreude level and then you had Marielle whose 6'2'' built, hairy chest and low pitched barytone voice made him look like the epitome of French charisma, whether he played popular middle-class guys or suave bourgeois. The man had presence and such a voice that grandiloquence was a second suit and only in the mid-70s he could finally let his talent blossom thanks to the perceptive eye of Seria who knew he had a material that couldn't work without any other actor. Marielle belonged to the same promotion that gave Belmondo, Noiret, Rich but that was the role he was born to play (and you know what Siskel said, with the right casting, half the film is done).

So Henri makes his entrance in a little umbrella shop, he's a travelling umbrella salesman and when he speaks, you can feel the verbal machinery is all perfectly oiled; from the smile, the greetings, the methodic description of each model to the polite comment to the shop-owner who shyly admits buying from another shop. Henri doesn't sell his umbrellas like a quack doctor his elixir but like the one thing that roots him to the real world, what he needs to forget his sexless marital wife. It's interesting that his character-establishing moment consists of him waking up in the middle of the night to draw the delicate buttocks of his wife, perhaps her one saving grace. In two scenes shot back to back (no pun intended) we have a glimpse on his normality and his source of escapism and from his encounter with the colorful 'pilgrim' hitch-hiker (Claude Piéplu) we know it's definitely not religion. The whole second act, starting with him hitting a boar with his car, shows him sliding down to a state where painting become his normality.

The film could have been titled "The little death of a salesman", if you speak French you know what 'little death' means or you can take is as a more symbolic move: when Henri throws his own past away once he meets a beautiful girl named Angela followed by his agony not to find a woman who can match her perfect curves. But I am moving too fast, the character of Emile is crucial to understand Henri's descent into madness. Emile (Bernard Fresson) is a carefree painter who befriends Henri and invites him to stay in his cottage while his car is fixed, this is where he meets Angela, the Canadian live-in girlfriend played by Dolores McDonough. For Henri, Angela represents the ideal his inspiration's been hunting, a reason to drop everything and convert into a life of bohemian idleness but for Emile, it's just a reason to satisfy his pervert appetites. We can clearly see in Henri the desperate soul of a true artist and that Angela ends up dumping him for the bad guy accelerates his downfall.

Moving to the city of painters, Pont-Aven (Britanny), he ironically becomes the butt of the townspeople, a caricature of a fallen artist desperately longing for these heavenly shapes that blessed a few nights before haunting them by their absence. Marielle's performance is the salt that gives the film its flavor, watching this big hunk of a man becoming a pathetic wreck after he lost his muse is one of the film's most heart-breaking moments. One can't understand Henri if his mind is impermeable to the struggles of artists, people of genuine obsession, of a particular vision that shape their soul and condition their lives; there's more than that in "Cookies", there's a man whose artistic dedication was fueled with ideals that were worth spending an eternity reaching them. Even if it that ideal is just represented on what goes below the waist, after all, Russ Meyer built a career on what goes above.

The film ends with a light of hope symbolized by the young maid Marie (Jeanne Goupil) who awakes Henri from his lethargic and his resurrection is one of the most iconic moments of French cinema, a time where lust, nudity and sex weren't big deal. I doubt that such a film would garner the same reaction but even the detractors won't miss the sincerity in Marielle's despair, not the abusive man, but the man abused by his own demons, a true artist. Not convinced? Well, just remember the content of one of the greatest French paintings ever: Courbet's "Origin of the World".

Loosely inspired from the life of french painter Paul Gauguin, Cookies (french title Les Galettes de Pont-Aven, Joël Séria 1975) relates how a salesman of umbrellas (played by the hilarious then-43 year-old Jean-Pierre Marielle) rejects his former life and stern spouse to embark on a painting career. His pursuit of happiness and inspiration is marked out by several mistresses, the physical proximity and intimate smell of whom drive him to bliss — and boozy despair when they disappear. Several episodes reflect the contradictions of the early Giscard-d'Estaing era with witty humor, such as Marielle disguised as a traditional Breton singing a duo in a country show, or Dominique Lavanant as a dialect-speaking prostitute in traditional Brittany outfit. Most of all, many viewers will enjoy the moments when the touch and smell of a good pair of buttocks turn the half-dead Jean-Pierre Marielle into an apoplectic, ecstatic reborn. Many aspect of this enjoyable movie are exemplary of the aftermath of the 1968 movement of 'libération sexuelle' which provided inspiration to french independent movie makers and cartoonists (in particular, those of Marcel Gotlib, Claire Bretecher and Nikita Mandryka). But beware : some scenes of drunkenness are awkward and too long and may make the movie unsuitable for contemporary spectators, particularly those lacking familiarity with the smelly and 'troisième degré' humor of extreme Frenchmen in the seventies.

In many ways, 'Les Galettes de Pont-Aven' remains faithful to 1970s, the time of its making when people did not have to worry much to lead a carefree life. Those viewers who are familiar with arts and the world of painters would not take much time to associate famous French painter Paul Gauguin with Pont-Aven. He shares a lot of similarities with Henri Serin, an ordinary man's character played brilliantly by French actor Jean-Pierre Marielle who also started to paint somewhat late in his life. By directing 'Cookies', Joël Séria has put himself in the same league as Jean Renoir who was able to direct films about ordinary men who emerged as heroes. The entire film is based on the notion of respect bordering on appreciation and recognition which an ordinary man is seeking. He finds it after being part of different adventurous experiences. In the history of French cinema, 'Les Galettes de Pont-Aven' has achieved the status of a cult film. It was made in 1975 but continues to remain very relevant even in the modern times. It is recommended for those viewers who would like to explore some hidden gems of French cinema.

a salesman of umbrellas. and his universe. strange, full of eroticism, mixture of bitter experiences and "joie de vivre", wise, superficial, seductive, bohemian,careless. the film could be a reasonable adaptation of Franz Kafka short stories. or, maybe, an unconventional portrait of Paul Gaugain, evoked in few moments. but the axis of it is the impeccable performance of Jean-Pierre Marielle. maybe, this is the basic motif to see ȚLes galletes de Pont - Aven" . and for an idyllic picture of Bretagne.

This original sexual comedy by the director Joël Séria, who also made the popular TV-series "Nestor Burma", is full of unexpected situations between a man and women. A salesman of umbrellas, Henri Serin (a magnificent Jean-Pierre Marielle), is having sex with all the women of which he paints a portrait and which he encounters during his travels. While one is cooking in her kitchen, he is painting. Once he is invited but immediately expelled when he wants to unfold her traditional ribbon. Henri Serin falls for a very young woman which he can seduce while making a portrait of her. His only friend is a modernist priest (Romain Bouteille) who likes to talk with him in the local bar. Henri Serin does not think of tomorrow and lives "la vie d'artiste". Life is beautiful and sex is life.