A dozen sketches featuring colorful characters.Social, cultural and political commentary drive this series of sketches, which put wacky characters from all walks of life in unusual situation... Read allA dozen sketches featuring colorful characters.Social, cultural and political commentary drive this series of sketches, which put wacky characters from all walks of life in unusual situations.A dozen sketches featuring colorful characters.Social, cultural and political commentary drive this series of sketches, which put wacky characters from all walks of life in unusual situations.
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Insecurity in the French late seventies.
Not to be mistaken for Claude Chabrol's eponymous movie (1997).
This is a series of sketches ,all featuring Jacques Villeret ,"linked" by Mister-man-of-the-street interviews : in 1979, most of the French people were alreay complaining,moaning ,cursing those troubled times ;not only the connection with the sketches is artificial ,but it is also a spate of clichés ,and by the fourth opinion poll,the viewer may have a tendency to use the fast forward button. Now for the segments:
segment one :"urgence":Jacques François ,Tonie Marshall. A plumber is called in a hospital where there are damages caused by leakage ;he is mistaken for a patient and taken to the operating room. This sketch was probably conceived to denounce those overcrowded hospitals where sick persons are crammed like cattle,but due to a heavy-handed directing,it fails totally to convince;only the dialogue of the deaf between the plumber and the surgeon does the trick,just because in the kingdom of the blind,the one-eyed man is king.
segment 2:"night in tube " :Patrick Chesnais, MIchel Jonas. Three hoodlums spread terror in the subway ;the ending may be surprising but the short is a saddening bore ; it was supposed to depict the insecurity but Villeret would not scare a four year old.
segment 3:"thérapy" :Micheline Presles . A socialite visits the poor and the sick in the hospitals in the name of the Lord and calls on a painter's art gallery where she goes into ectasies before his horrors; secretly ,she goes to her shrink's office and it's downhill ; one feels sorry for legendary actress Presles ;after urban insecurity,this is angst ,and it's hopeless.
Sketch 4:"return to the basic" Eva Darlan. Things go a little better (it couldn't be worse)with this spoof on the "return to nature" which was so trendy in the FRench seventies ;the lines are a notch or two up the scale ; the only short where there's a little subtlety :does the tired writer leave Paris for the country because he wanted to escape from the trouble and the strife of a fashionable writer's life ,or because he was running out of ideas ;some sentences show that he has not given up his claim to fame (he wants to be talked about even when he is away);the way he condescendingly treats his peasant "brother" is also a good moment.The ending is ambiguous :it's not sure that the answer to insecurity and stress is outside the city limits.
segment 5: "Plucky Dupin".Michel blanc A paranoiac is so afraid of thieves his house is full of deadly traps ; insecurity again ; and predictable ending ....
Segment 6: "we can work it out" Judith Magre . A marvelously precise spoof on those two-bit psychoanalysis on the radio ; a woman (played by Villeret with a wig ) phones the local Ménie Grégoire (or Dear Abby ,if you're American)because she has lots of problems with her family ; this is downright absurd,but ,against all odds ,it works,because of Judith Magre's efficient performance of a reassuring and suave charlatan .Much better,in this field,than segment 3.
Segment 7: "sentimental hygiene " :Patrick Chesnais ,Evelyne Bouix. A cop tracks the prostitution rings ;the ending is as predictable as that of segment 5.
Segment 8 "who's there?" Eva Darlan,José Arthur This could have been a good spoof on stupid TV games ,but the paucity of the ideas and the unbearable actress's ham acting fail totally to grab the viewer.
Segment 9: "daily life at the "La Grenade " cafe": Patrick Chesnais , Roland Blanche, Tonie Marshall. They saved the worst for the last ; it's the militaries' turn to be ridiculed ,and this final sketch is a mess ,a jumble,a waste of breath..
Two acceptable sketches (out of nine) ,it does not make it on the percentages ;it's really too bad for the sadly missed Villeret,who stars in every sketch and who was rarely given worthy parts on the silver screen
This is a series of sketches ,all featuring Jacques Villeret ,"linked" by Mister-man-of-the-street interviews : in 1979, most of the French people were alreay complaining,moaning ,cursing those troubled times ;not only the connection with the sketches is artificial ,but it is also a spate of clichés ,and by the fourth opinion poll,the viewer may have a tendency to use the fast forward button. Now for the segments:
segment one :"urgence":Jacques François ,Tonie Marshall. A plumber is called in a hospital where there are damages caused by leakage ;he is mistaken for a patient and taken to the operating room. This sketch was probably conceived to denounce those overcrowded hospitals where sick persons are crammed like cattle,but due to a heavy-handed directing,it fails totally to convince;only the dialogue of the deaf between the plumber and the surgeon does the trick,just because in the kingdom of the blind,the one-eyed man is king.
segment 2:"night in tube " :Patrick Chesnais, MIchel Jonas. Three hoodlums spread terror in the subway ;the ending may be surprising but the short is a saddening bore ; it was supposed to depict the insecurity but Villeret would not scare a four year old.
segment 3:"thérapy" :Micheline Presles . A socialite visits the poor and the sick in the hospitals in the name of the Lord and calls on a painter's art gallery where she goes into ectasies before his horrors; secretly ,she goes to her shrink's office and it's downhill ; one feels sorry for legendary actress Presles ;after urban insecurity,this is angst ,and it's hopeless.
Sketch 4:"return to the basic" Eva Darlan. Things go a little better (it couldn't be worse)with this spoof on the "return to nature" which was so trendy in the FRench seventies ;the lines are a notch or two up the scale ; the only short where there's a little subtlety :does the tired writer leave Paris for the country because he wanted to escape from the trouble and the strife of a fashionable writer's life ,or because he was running out of ideas ;some sentences show that he has not given up his claim to fame (he wants to be talked about even when he is away);the way he condescendingly treats his peasant "brother" is also a good moment.The ending is ambiguous :it's not sure that the answer to insecurity and stress is outside the city limits.
segment 5: "Plucky Dupin".Michel blanc A paranoiac is so afraid of thieves his house is full of deadly traps ; insecurity again ; and predictable ending ....
Segment 6: "we can work it out" Judith Magre . A marvelously precise spoof on those two-bit psychoanalysis on the radio ; a woman (played by Villeret with a wig ) phones the local Ménie Grégoire (or Dear Abby ,if you're American)because she has lots of problems with her family ; this is downright absurd,but ,against all odds ,it works,because of Judith Magre's efficient performance of a reassuring and suave charlatan .Much better,in this field,than segment 3.
Segment 7: "sentimental hygiene " :Patrick Chesnais ,Evelyne Bouix. A cop tracks the prostitution rings ;the ending is as predictable as that of segment 5.
Segment 8 "who's there?" Eva Darlan,José Arthur This could have been a good spoof on stupid TV games ,but the paucity of the ideas and the unbearable actress's ham acting fail totally to grab the viewer.
Segment 9: "daily life at the "La Grenade " cafe": Patrick Chesnais , Roland Blanche, Tonie Marshall. They saved the worst for the last ; it's the militaries' turn to be ridiculed ,and this final sketch is a mess ,a jumble,a waste of breath..
Two acceptable sketches (out of nine) ,it does not make it on the percentages ;it's really too bad for the sadly missed Villeret,who stars in every sketch and who was rarely given worthy parts on the silver screen
helpful•21
- dbdumonteil
- Apr 25, 2019
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- Also known as
- Inget funkar längre
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Sound mix
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