Comments on: Populaire (France-Belgium 2012)

By: des1967

des1967 — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 11:23:33 +0000

Wouldn’t Jim Carrey be a better example? Now that I think about it, there quite a resemblance between him and Duris!

By: Roy Stafford

Roy Stafford — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 10:21:23 +0000

In reply to des1967. In French terms, I think that a cinema audience of 2-3 million might be expected for a film with a budget of 14 million euros to be a hit. I need to find you some gurning Jack Lemmon photos!

By: des1967

des1967 — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 16:28:37 +0000

In reply to Roy Stafford. Jack Lemmon was restrained in comparison. Jerry Lewis? Re business, I admit my methods were more impressionistic than scientific - reactions in French press, what people I met were saying, etc. But, although no Intouchables nor even one of those machine-like franchises such as Asterix or La vérité si je mens, it has done pretty good business at 1.2 million spectators.

By: Roy Stafford

Roy Stafford — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 15:44:50 +0000

In reply to des1967. Yes, I had my doubts about Romain Duris but the more I think about him as Jack Lemmon, the more I think his idiot grin could work. I'm intrigued by your comment about the film's recent 'great business' in France. I thought that Populaire was released in France last November when it did good but not spectacular business, especially given a very wide release. Box Office Mojo currently shows $US9 million with the UK as third biggest territory with $476,000.

By: des1967

des1967 — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 09:25:11 +0000

I agree with most of what Roy says. The colour and the mise en scene generally were excellent. Those responsible for production design must have had a ball making this film. I’ve seen criticism of the way the film ignored important things that were happening in France at the time (the Algerian crisis, an army mutiny, the overthrowing of the Fourth Republic and the coming to power by De Gaulle in dubious circumstances). I’m not sure a genre like the romcom can contain elements such as these but in certain respects it does reflect the social reality of the period. This was the high point in the so-called “trente glorieuses”, the 30-year period after the War when France went, politically, from crisis to crisis but economically and socially it was a time of rapid change. (The Moulinex kitchen gadgets said it all). Where I depart from Roy is in the performance of Romain Duris. He’s a fine actor in many ways. He was excellent in, for example, De battre mon cœur s'est arêté/The Beat that My Heart Skipped, L'Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie/ The Big Picture and especially Paris . But I really don’t like him as a comic actor – particularly in L’arnacoeur/Heartbreaker. He seems to have one basic trope for comedy: an idiotic grin. Anyway, I’m not sure of the extent to which bad reviews affect box office but I’m just back from France where the film has been doing great business. Incidentally, Duris’s next film is an adaptation from a very popular French novel, “L’écume des jours” by Boris Vian (who is perhaps best known here as author of that great anti-war, anti-colonialist song, "Le Déserteur" – which was, of course, banned in France). The novel is a surrealist, satirical romance which has been translated into English as “Froth on the Daydream”. The film’s English title will be Mood Indigo, perhaps to do with Vian’s being a fan of Duke Ellington. It’s a novel which I thought untranslateable and unadaptable (although there was an attempt in 1968 by Charles Belmont with Jacques Perrin, Marie-France Pisier and Sami Frey) but maybe the combination of Duris and his co-star Audrey Tautou (there’s a certain quaint wackiness in the novel) will work and Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is perhaps the director who to pull it off.