Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

At the start of 1980s Louis De Funes was the most popular and successful comic of the French cinema. But he was also quite old and frail man, the fact he was quite aware of and which played important part in the last films of his career. Old age is a theme that dominates the plot of De Funes’ penultimate film, 1982 comedy The Cabbage Soup, directed by Jean Girault.

The film is based on the novel by René Fallet which was, rather faithfully, adapted into script by De Funes and Jean Halan. The plot is set in Bourbonnais, rural region in the centre of France and the protagonist, played by De Funes, is Claude “Le Glaude” Ratinier, old widower who lives in remote and backward hamlet. Just like his neighbour and best friend Francis “Le Bombé” Chérasse (played by Jean Carmet), he refuses to adapt to modern ways of 20th Century and proudly sticks to traditional way of life. Their life mostly revolves around drinking wine and eating cabbage soup, which often leads them to amuse themselves by engaging in farting contests. One such occasion catches attention of an alien (played by Jacques Villeret) from planet Oxo who comes with flying saucer to investigate. Glaude is the only one to see him and, after some initial misunderstandings, quickly befriends the visitor who, apparently, likes his cabbage soup very much and expresses his gratitude for such gastronomic delight in various spectacular ways. That includes resurrecting Glaude’s late wife Francine (played by Christine Dejoux) who appears as 20-year old woman, creating all kinds of challenges for her husband.

The author of this review was initially disappointed by this film. I have expected science fiction, or at least its light-hearted parody like The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials, one of De Funes’ previous films. While it clearly belongs to the genre and features some rather decent special effects for its time, it is in essence much broader comedy and not that light-hearted in the first place. General tone is much more downbeat and sentimental and deals with old lonely men at odds at world that passed them by. De Funes is, nevertheless, very good in his role, one of the rare in which played simple country bumpkin. He had great chemistry with Carmet, another great French actor, with whom he develops effective “buddy buddy” dynamic. Jacques Villeret, another great French comedian, is also very good in the role of the alien and, although his strange Teletubbies-like attire and mannerisms take some time to get used to, he manages to win audience’s affection for his character. The casting was less fortunate in the case of Christine Dejoux who, even with age difference taken into consideration, lacks chemistry with De Funes. To make things worse, her character appears at the half point of the film only to relatively quickly disappear, with her subplot being undeveloped. Same thing, to a degree, can be said about subplot about the mayor (played by Marco Perrin) obsessed with the idea to develop the town at the expense of the protagonists. After the premiere critics were savage towards the film, mostly due to flatulence jokes they considered poor taste. The audience, like in many similar occasions, had different opinion and The Cabbage Soup became something of a minor hit in France. Those who watch it now and without too much expectations, might be entertained enough to conclude that even subpar De Funes is better than many of today’s film comedians.

RATING: 5/10 (++)