Friday, January 7, 2011

Take Me to the Movies!

I’m not a huge fan of French film.  Its not that they're not well-made.  It just seems the movies, like french musical preformances or art, is all about interpretation here--You know, the ‘feeling’.  The ‘deeper meaning’ of it all.  And I suppose that’s why they come out with so many dramas each year.  My friends and I used to say  ‘It ain’t French unless somebody dies!’.

Even their comedy is ‘dark comedy’.  Like, the poor (but funny) main character loses everything and dives to the depths of despair (in a funny kind of way).  If we’re lucky, they’ll get their happy ending and things will perk up (a little). 

But in most cases, he’ll just jump out a window.

Anyway, not all French film is looking for deeper meaning.  Like their American counterparts, some movies are made for entertainment value alone and since I like my movies about as deep as a kiddie pool, these are the ones I’m going to focus on today.  For all you fans of cinema, these French comedies are well worth a look in my opinion:

Jean-Phillipe- a mega fanatic wakes up to find the guy he idolizes never existed.

Podium- An impersonator of the 1960's popstar 'Claude Francois' finds himself competing for the right to do what he loves


L’Arnacoeur-  A guy who works as a professional ‘break up’ artist is paid to break up a mafia ringleader’s daughter’s engagement. 


LOL-  A coming of age movie about a girl named Lola.  I’d be messed up if my mom looked like Sophie Marceau too.


Tellement Proches- Hilarious but touching movie about a family living in the Paris suburbs.


Cleopatre-  Asterix and Obelix help the queen of Egypt build her palace in order to win a bet against Ceasar.

Bienvenu Chez Les Chtis-  a guy from the south of France is given a job up north and suffers culture shock.   Kind of like what happens when a Yankee goes to Georgia for the first time.

Moi Cesar- Story told by a little boy who's got a big name to live up to.


L’Auberge Espagnole-  A group of students from all different countries live together in a small apartment in Spain.



Some oldies but goodies:

Les Bronzés- a group of middle aged friends (think the cast of ‘Friends’, but..french) go on vacation together in the south.

Les Bronzés Font du Ski-  same group, but at a ski resort

Les Visiteurs-  Jean Reno plays a medieval knight who gets cast into 1993.

Go ahead and check these out if you can find them at your local blockbuster- then you can watch some mindless French comedy and brag to your friends on the side about your 'knowledge of French film'.  Das what I do, anyway:)

Have a great weekend everyone!

*CQG*

31 comments:

Unknown said...

Some of these look horrible ... I MUST WATCH!! :)

Happy Weekend!

EJ

Summer Frey said...

I LOVE L'auberge Espagnole!! I have the sequel, but I've never seen it.

Susan Fields said...

I've never heard of any of those. Some of them sound good - I'll have to check if they're on Netflix!

Have a great weekend!

Elena Solodow said...

The one about the break-up artist sounds interesting...

AiringMyLaundry said...

I will definately have to check some of these movies out.

Stina said...

I want to see the third one. Now that looks funny!

Laura Pauling said...

Some of those don't look too bad. We have to hook up our wireless streaming netflix and I'll see if I can find some of them. :)

S.A. Larsenッ said...

The dark thing is so true! My entire fam damly is like that...unless they're drinking. Then everything is funny. Hah...well, the French in all of us is a tad dramatic.

Thanks for these wonderful suggestions.

I need a good laugh today.

Avo said...

Ergh... At least you didn't pull out any De Defunès. ; j
Considering this list, have you seen "Le père noel est une ordure"?
You'd prolly dig it.
They made an awful American remake with Steve Martin as I recall... Mixed Nuts (1994), as IMDB kindly reminds me.

BTW, is the creepy query girl no longer creepy?
And so the title changed to something closer to truth, the awesome query girl. ; j
Or perhaps the (im?)patiently waiting query girl?

Creepy Query Girl said...

lol- Thanks Alesa! Nope, I'm still creepy. Or at least, my blog is. I've decided to start using my real name for the simple reason that I'd rather the author line of my (someday published maybe) book be 'Katie Mills' rather than 'Creepy':)

Avo said...

Makes sense! Nodnod.
Too bad, I was so looking forward to owning a book by creepy.
I guess now we'll be rooting for Katie Mills! Go go Katie Mills! : j

Old Kitty said...

I'll forever and a day love Le Cage Aux Folles 1&2. It'll be most interesting to see which of these Hollywood would remake!

Take care
x

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Thanks for the suggestions!

Avo said...

@old kitty: La cage aux folles got an American remake in '96: "The birdcage", starring a lot of famous people as I recall... Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest... : j

Melissa Gill said...

I'll have to check out a French comedy. Sometimes it helps me focus if I have to read the subtitles.

Slamdunk said...

Looks like some fun options. With our little crew, my movie knowledge has sunk. If it is not Finding Nemo or one of the Toy Story series, I have no clue.

Meredith said...

I love L'auberge espagnole! Such a cute, funny movie. I'll have to explore more of French cinema, though dark and depressing really isn't my style :)

Matthew MacNish said...

Wow. Lots of great choices here!

I really enjoyed Hate, but it's pretty serious:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113247/

Nicole Zoltack said...

Wow, some of those sound really good. :)

Carolyn V. said...

We tried a spy comedy from France last year. It was pretty good and the actor was hilarious. Unfortunately, I can't remember what it was called.

Avo said...

@Carolyn V.: That would probably have been "OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus" with Jean Dujardin. : j

April Plummer said...

I'll be honest. None of those seem like they would really hold my interest. Even if they did, I'd have to add them to the list, I'd have to find time to watch them when my husband wasn't around. He'd never even give it a shot! lol

Dawn Ius said...

So, my BF just bought me some imported French Vodka (Grey Goose, I think). Sounds like I should mix a drink and pop in a movie. Great list. Thanks.

Dan said...

I had it all wrong. I thought French films were all about gratuitous nudity.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

LOL. Thanks for the list!

Golden Eagle said...

I've never heard of any of these. :P

Vicki Rocho said...

I'm thinking this will have to be a Netflix thing cuz there's no way my itty bitty Iowa video store is going to have foreign films! Couple of those look like just my thing!

Colene Murphy said...

Awesome! Will look into some of them! I can understand where interpreting every movie can to be a little much all the time.

Carolyn Abiad said...

I like a French film once in a while. I enjoyed the Trois couleurs: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge trilogy and LOVED Hors de Prix/Priceless (I love anything with Audrey Tautou!)I'll check these out too! Thanks for the recommendations! :)

Melissa said...

I might check into some of these. I've been meaning to start checking out some foreign films so thanks!

LTM said...

ooo, I love movies. Some of these seem so odd--like that Cleopatra film. How bizarre... :D But LOL looks cute~ <3

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