Kad Merad

  • Supercondriaque (2014)

    Supercondriaque (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, October 2021) Writer-director Danny Boon has been establishing himself as one of France’s leading film comedy powerhouses since the 2008 breakout hit Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Supercondriaque is one of the six films he has led as a filmmaker since then—all broad, big-budgeted (by French standards) comedies aiming at a large public and featuring Boon in leading roles. They’re not that different from the mainstream of Hollywood comedies—clear high-concept premise, formula-tested development, big finale, safe themes and fun for all. In Supercondriaque, we have Boon as an exceptionally hypochondriac man pushed by his exasperated doctor to take back control of his life and get over his imaginary ailments. The big push, after a rather lengthy forty-some minutes of throat-clearing, comes when his uncanny resemblance to a foreign freedom fighter leads to outrageous mistaken-identity romantic and political adventures designed to push his limits. You can guess that it ends on a very funny sequence in which he laughs at unimaginable filth—it’s rather funny to see him bond with a rat. The pacing is generally breezy once it gets going, although Boon and co-star Kad Merad can’t quite avoid some mugging for the camera. Two-time Boon collaborator Alice Pol (she also shows up in the subsequent Raid Dingue) is cute in a less overly comic role, with some good supporting work from a variety of other actors. Supercondriaque is not refined filmmaking, but it’s handled with competence and energy. The gags in the film’s last half get desperate at times (there’s an entire stream of jokes about Victor Hugo’s characters that gets to be a bit much) but that’s in keeping with the increasing frantic nature of the film. For Anglophone audiences looking in tackling recent French comedy, this is not a bad choice—the essential Frenchness of the result isn’t too pronounced and Boon’s lunacy translates well.

  • Bienvenue chez les ch’tis [Welcome to the Sticks] (2008)

    Bienvenue chez les ch’tis [Welcome to the Sticks] (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) It’s probably best not to focus on the fact that Bienvenue chez les ch’tis is one of the highest-grossing French films of all times, otherwise it’s almost de rigueur to question what makes this film so special.  The answer is close to “not much”: As with so many fish-out-of-the-water comedies in which sophisticated characters are thrust in rustic locations for an extended period, you can almost see the clicks of the well-worn plot mechanics at work in this film as scene after scene does its job.  Of course, the much-derided place is full of heart-warming characters with real qualities and problems.  Of course, the lead character comes to love the place.  Of course, there are a few complications.  Perhaps the most amusing element of Bienvenue chez les ch’tis is the excessive setup in which “Le Nord” is depicted, via the usual stereotypes, as a horrible place; the flip side of that setup is the elaborate deception that the lead character ends up entertaining in order to placate his incredulous south-bound family.  Props also go to the willingness to show the epilogue of the tale, something that other films would have avoided.  Otherwise, it’s by-the-number comedy filmmaking.  Well done, amusing and mechanical.  Kad Merad and Dany Boon make up a decent comedic pair, playing off southern/northern stereotypes with energy.  This isn’t a strikingly original film, especially not when every regional cinema seems to have a variation of the same story (For French-Canada, check out La Grande Séduction).  But reasonably well-made films can be a joy to watch even when they follow familiar templates, and this is another one of them.  Millions of Francophones can be unadventurous, but in this case they’re not necessarily wrong.  (But they will want to turn on the subtitles.) The DVD contains an overly long blooper reel, and a slightly amusing featurette in which the film’s two leads try to go back incognito to the village where the film was shot.