La débandade

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Movie
Original title La débandade
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1999
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Claude Berri
script Claude Berri,
Tonino Benacquista ,
Arlette Langmann
production Pierre Grunstein ,
Patrick Batteux
music Bruno Coulais
camera William Lubtchansky
cut Hervé de Luze
occupation

La débandade (Eng .: "The Wild Escape") is a French comedy film from 1999. Directed by Claude Berri , who also played a leading role alongside Fanny Ardant .

action

Claude Langmann, a middle-aged Paris auctioneer , has been happily married to his wife Marie for 15 years. He loves her very much and has always been loyal to her over the years, but can't offer her much in bed. He has erectile dysfunction . Marie assures him that his love and tenderness are enough for her, but Claude is increasingly dissatisfied. His family doctor Dr. Nataf advises him to see a specialist. But first Claude wants to try role-playing in the bedroom; However, Marie refuses to put on a nun's costume. Claude's old friend Paul-Edouard confides in him that he once had the same problem and recommends that he injects himself with a syringe before having sex in order to be potent.

Confused, Claude finally seeks out a specialist who, after the examination, prescribes a drug that instead of permanent erection only causes Claude to become extremely tired. When Marie accompanies him to the specialist and he recommends a vacuum pump , Marie can't control herself with laughter. Claude turns away, embarrassed. Thereupon Claude begins to secretly meet with his pretty assistant Agnès. They eat and dance together at a Brazilian party. Although she is significantly younger than Claude, Agnès is not averse to an affair.

Claude becomes aware of Viagra through an article in a magazine, but it is not yet approved in France . When he is supposed to lead an auction of erotic antiques in Switzerland , where the potency-enhancing agent is already available, he leaves expectantly. When he arrived in Geneva , Paul-Edouard, who was traveling with him, bought the Viagra from a pharmacy and gave Claude half of the pills. Claude hopes to try the Viagra with Agnès. His daughter Nathalie, who also traveled with him, gets in his way on the crucial evening with her male problems.

Back in Paris, Marie is too busy to share a bed with Claude. The following night, Claude drives frustrated through the streets in his car. He meets a prostitute in a bar. However, when he is not allowed into a brothel with her, he gets into an argument with her and returns home. At an auction, a red-haired bidder flirts with him and they end up in a hotel. Since the redhead insists on a condom , but Claude doesn't have one with him, he goes to a pharmacy. There he changes his mind, goes home and ultimately remains loyal to Marie.

background

Filmmaker Claude Berri wrote the screenplay with Tonino Benacquista and his younger sister Arlette Langmann . The shooting took place in Paris and Geneva.

La débandade was released in France and Belgium on October 6, 1999. The film has not yet been released in Germany.

Reviews

For Pierre Vavasseur of Le Parisien , La débandade was “a sweet comedy” that “paradoxically” arouses sympathy with its ups and downs. Pascal Mérigeau from Le Nouvel Observateur believed that Claude Berri touched you “where it hurts and where you have to laugh”. The result is his "best film in a long time". Olivier Séguret of the Liberation, however, said that La Débandade is not a good film, but rather "a strange matter" that adds to the mystery of Berri. Jérôme Larcher wrote in the Cahiers du cinéma that the film was both "a folk comedy" and "a filmmaker's self-destructive self-portrait".

Télérama described La débandade as "a little satire that is very much based on the popular comedies of the 1970s". Although desire and its secrets are "at the center of the script", the film quickly confines itself to just one subject: "A mechanical discomfort of old age". Claude Berri also seems to have been “less interested in the subject than in himself”. For being "voluntarily ridiculous" and showing himself "unfavorable", he should have made a biography about himself "instead of [...] hiding behind this sad comedy".

Jonathan Crow from the All Movie Guide again drew a positive conclusion. According to him, the film is "carefree, humorous and touching in dealing with male sexuality in later years".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ " La débandade est une comédie douce, de bonne tenue, qui s'attire paradoxalement la sympathie par ses hauts et ses bas." Pierre Vavasseur quoted in Le Parisien . according to allocine.fr
  2. ↑ "Claude Berri touche là où ça fait mal, donc là où ça fait rire, et signe son meilleur film depuis… longtemps." Pascal Mérigeau in Le Nouvel Observateur quoted. according to allocine.fr
  3. ↑ “Si La Débandade n'est pas un très bon film, c'est un objet curieux, qui épaissit encore un peu l'énigme Berri.” Olivier Séguret: “La Débandade”, un exercice déroutant . In: Liberation , October 6, 1999.
  4. ↑ “C'est à la fois une comédie populaire sur un thème de société […] et l'autoportrait autodestructeur d'un cinéaste qui, en se donnant le beau rôle, se met en mauvaise posture.” Jérôme Larcher in Cahiers du cinéma quoted according to allocine.fr
  5. ↑ “Claude Berri accouche, lui, d'une petite satire, lorgnant vers un type de comédie populaire très 'années 70'. C'est le désir, et ses mystères, qui est au coeur de ce scénario, mais celui-ci se réduit vite à sa portion la plus congrue: un désagrément mécanique dû à l'âge. […] Il paraît moins intéressé par le sujet que par lui-même […] Devant cette volonté franche de rire de lui, voire par moments de se montrer sous un jour défavorable, on se dit qu'il aurait dû faire carrément son autoportrait , au lieu […] se cachant derrière cette comédie tristounette. ”Cf. La débandade . In: Télérama , October 6, 1999.
  6. ^ " La débandade is a lightly funny, touching looking at male sexuality during life's later years." Jonathan Crow, cf. omovie.com