Hey folks, Harry here with the Lovely Elaine and more of her adventures in Foreign Cinema... this time out she happens to of seen two Gay orientated French Comedies which she told me she "laughed her arse off over". And frankly French comedies are usually just a complete delight... If you have a chance to find yourself in front of these two films... sieze the opportunity... It will most likely be a very satisfactory journey for ya... Here's Elaine...
WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS (France, 2000)
"Water Drops on Burning Rocks" ("Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brulantes" in French) is an adaptation of an unproduced play Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote at the age of 19, "Tropfen auf heisse Steine." Sound like a recipe for a bad film? That's what I thought before I saw it. But against all odds, "Water Drops" turned out to be one of the most hilarious comedies I've seen all year. It got rave reviews at this year's Berlin film festival and should garner similar praise in the English-speaking world.
"Water Drops" is the story of two homosexual men and their former heterosexual partners. When the film opens, slick 50-something insurance salesman Leopold Bluhm (where have we heard THAT before?) shows a young man he has just picked up his flat. They chit-chat about the ancient Greeks, all-male boarding-schools and sex with women, and eventually, after a lot of games, they sleep with each other. Then the story jumps forward six months to show us Leopold and Franz as they have become. Far from a cool father/lover, Leopold turns out to be a petit-bourgeois house tyrant who has formed Franz to his own taste and is now getting bored with him. A power game ensues which is not resolved until Anna and Vera, Franz' and Leopold's former lovers, show up. The 'menage a deux' turns into a 'menage a quatre' and the ending is, inevitably, tragic.
Director Francois Ozon (of "Sitcom" fame) has done little to shroud the play origins of "Water Drops." Without a single exception, the action takes place against the garish decor of Leopold's flat; the only exterior shot we get is that of Vera's face through the windows in the closing minute. Furthermore, the story depends entirely upon dialogue and over-the-top acting, and as if that weren't enough to convince you that you're looking at a play, there are intertitles announcing the acts. This is less pathetic than it might sound. Both Leopold's 1970's-style flat and the dialogue are a riot, and the pace is high right up to the 'tragic' end, which is treated in such deadpan fashion it's hard even to call it a tragedy. To top it all off, there's a dance number to Tony Holiday's "Tanze Samba mit Mir" (a European disco classic if ever there was one, with the immortal refrain "Du bist so heiss wie ein Vulkan") which is an absolute hoot. The audience with which I watched the film gave it an ovation, which doesn't happen all that often in my cynical part of the world.
"Water Drops on Burning Rocks" is an exploration of bourgeois relationships and the lust for power inherent in them. Leopold, the catalyst of everyhting that happens in the film, is depicted as a manipulative despot who seduces those he fancies, moulds their characters on his own, and then destroys them. Both Franz and Leopold's ex Vera admit they are "his creation," while Franz' ex-fiancee Anna looks on her way to becoming one towards the end of the film. Yet despite all the psychologising, "Water Drops" is a remarkably unsentimental film, in which even the most tragic elements are rendered comical. The only scenes that could with a bit of exaggeration be described as 'touching' are those of Franz and Anna sharing a few tender post-coital moments, which last about a minute in all. For the remaining hour and a half, the film is a sequence of snappy dialogue and wicked acting, and all the more brilliant for it.
Being a play rather than a special-effects extravaganza or an atmosphere-heavy drama, "Water Drops" puts great pressure on its four actors, who live up to the task quite magnificently. Anna Thomson and Malik Zidi are achingly damaged as Leopold's main victims, Vera and Franz. Young Ludivine Sagnier is bewitching in the role of the dim-witted but loveable Anna. However, it is Bernard Giraudeau ("Une affaire de gout") who steals the show as the alternatingly slick and bickering Leopold. Giraudeau has the most expressive eyebrows this side of Johnny Depp, which he uses to hilarious effect in this film. The same holds true for his voice, which goes from lecherous to seductive to whiny to evil and then back to lecherous. If this isn't a star-making performance for the 52-year-old Giraudeau, I don't know what is.
"Water Drops on Burning Rocks" is one of the most accessible comedies France has produced. It's witty but unpretentious, and ought to be a hit in the rest of the world for that reason alone. Don't be put off by the horribly seventies-like-looking opening credits; the rest of the film really is a hoot!
FUNNY FELIX (France, 2000)
"Funny Felix" ("Drole de Felix" in French) is a gay comedy that couldn't have been made anywhere but Europe. It's a film in which men aren't homosexual because they happen to be wittier and better-dressed than the straight people surrounding them (hello, Hollywood!), but because they are, well, gay, with all attendant desires and problems. As you'd expect from a French film, these desires are pictured quite graphically, if not exactly pornographically, in "Funny Felix." Forget about guys awkwardly patting each other on the back, visibly thinking "gee, do I really have to stand so close to this guy?"; in this film, as in "Water Drops," the male lovers kiss each other passionately on the mouth, roll around in the bush naked, and come out of the woods after their impromptu tryst absolutely starkers. (You mean, as in full frontal male nudity, Elaine? Oh yes, as in full, glorious, frontal male nudity, gentle reader. American censors will have a field day.)
Needless to say, "Funny Felix" is not about nudity. Nor is it a coming-out film, although Felix's homosexuality is an integral part of the story. What it is, then, is a movie about the human desire to belong, and the situations it can lead one into. In addressing this issue, the film steals some cliches from the road movie and broaches a few serious subjects like racism, AIDS and queer-bashing, but by and large it's a comedy, and a pretty successful one at that. It may not be as outrageously funny as "Water Drops," but it has charm in spades.
"Funny Felix" is the story of Felix, a young, half-Moroccan man living in Northern France. When we meet Felix, he has just lost his job and his mother. Surprisingly, he doesn't appear to be very upset by these setbacks; quite on the contrary, he sees them as an opportunity to do what he's wanted to do for a long time, namely find his father, who left him and his mother when he was a baby. Having established that his father lives in Marseille, Felix goes on a cross-country trip to the South. On the way there he hitches rides, steals a car and gets in and out of different kinds of trouble. Most of all, however, he establishes a kind of relationship with the people he meets on the way: a tormented young closet queen, a bossy old lady, a jolly young man who knows a lot about the different usages of vinegar (don't ask) and a young woman with three kids from three different fathers. In the end, these characters come to form a kind of surrogate family for Felix, who has never known what it's like to have a real family.
Unlike the English title suggests, Felix isn't hilariously funny, although he is remarkably good-natured for one who's had so rough a life as his. He just happens to get into situations which bring out the best in him, which in turn brings out the best in those he meets. Life's lessons are taught in quite a charming way here...
As a comedy, "Funny Felix" starts out a bit slow, but it picks up a lot of speed in the second half and ends on a positive note. Most of the fun, as one would expect from a road movie, lies in Felix's relationships with the people he meets on the road. It isn't all fun, though. As befits a film dealing with sensitive issues such as racism and homosexuality, there are a few shocking moments, such as the scene where Felix witnesses the beating-up of a foreigner and is warned by the aggressor to keep his mouth shut because "the police won't believe someone with a face like yours anyway." This scene leads to a sub-plot that is slightly more serious than the rest of the film but doesn't spoil the fun. If anything, it gives the film that extra bit of 'body' which prevents it from being a mere feel-good movie.
Screenwriters/directors Oliver Ducastel and Jacques Martineau previously worked together on "Jeanne et le garcon formidable" (1998), a quirky comedy of the kind only the French can make. In "Funny Felix" the talented duo handle their sensitive material with even greater adroitness. Their direction is confident, as is the acting. Sami Bouajila is loveable as the lazy but charming Felix, and Pierre-Loup Rajot and Charly Sergue make great foils as Felix's lovers. The show is stolen, however, by the two women in the film, namely the 82-year-old Patachou as Felix's new-found 'grandmother' and Ariane Ascaride as his explosive 'sister.' Together, they make up a wonderful cast in an enjoyable film that deserves a wider distribution than it has received so far.
Elaine
