FRENCH TWIST (1995) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Josiane Balasko Writers: Patrick Aubrée and Josiane Balasko (story by Telsche Borman) Starring: Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko, Alain Chabat, Ticky Holgado, Miguel Bosé
Contrary to popular belief, not every single foregin film released to an American market is a masterpiece. Some of them aren't even GOOD. Some examples of this principle are the aboslutely dreadful "Un indien dans la ville" (presented as "Little Indian, Big City," and remade into that crap Tim Allen flick, "Jungle2Jungle"), and this. What could have been a clever little sex comedy turns into one mess of a french flick.
"French Twist" (the "cool" American title, not the real one, which was "Gazon Maudit," literally meaning "twisted ground," or something like that) deals with a married couple with kids, and the intrusion of a stranger who kinda screws things up for them. Loli and Alain Chabat (Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat) are not exactly happily married. Always on business trips, Alain Chabat more than once cheats on her, and she eventually finds out. And one day, she meets a butch mechanic, Marijo (the co-writer/director Josiane Balasko), and they two kinda hit it off. So she decides she will get back at Alain Chabat by doing the obvious: sleeping with Marijo.
But she soons starts to not only fall in love with Marijo, but she's also realizes she's still in love with Alain Chabat. So, of course, she does the obvious from that: she decides to keep them both. She'll be (and sleep) with each of them for 3 days each, then on Sunday, she'll rest by herself. After all, she needs it if she's gonna have more sex than Sylvia Kristel.
The film goes on for over an hour and a half, through stupidity after stupidity, moronic twist after moronic twist, and soon there's the little ironic (!!!) ending. I know it's a completely different culture, and I'm quite familiar with the French and their cinema, but this is just BAD. None of the characters are more intelligent than Peter Stormare in "Fargo" (a movie where stupid characters were backed up to make a point), and any action they do is pretty much just to get a hopeful chuckle from the audience. What's shocking is this was not only one of France's biggest hits, but it was nominated for a lot of Cesars (French equivalent of Oscars).
The writing and directing is really the big problem with it. Josiane Balasko does a good acting job with her role, but her little sex comedy isn't very humerous, entertaining, or even deep at all. Even Woody Allen's not-very-good "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" is intelligent, well-written, and possesses some depth. This is shallow, unfunny, and pretty annoying to watch. The film moves at the pace of a snail, and is damn-near painful to watch. Thank god for the fast forward button.
The acting, however, isn't bad at all. The actors do the best they can with the bad material, and Victoria Abril is pretty likable despite the script (and the fact that she's stupid enough to try to divide herself over two people when she has kids). And Alain Chabat has some funny moments as the neurotic husband.
But "French Twist" is just pretty lame. It's not overly horrible, and has a couple very, very, very brief moments. But it's just a really crap film, and an example of an ill-advised distribution of a foreign film.
MY RATING (out of 4): *1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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