Meet the Elisabeths!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Meet the Elisabeths! |
| Original title | La première étoile |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lucien Jean-Baptiste |
| script | Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar |
| production |
Pierre Kubel , Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar |
| music | Erwann Kermorvant |
| camera | Myriam Vinocour |
| cut | Hugues Darmois |
| occupation | |
| |
Meet the Elisabeths! is a French film comedy of Lucien Jean-Baptiste from the year 2009 .
action
Although Jean-Gabriel is married and the father of three children, he lives for the day, switches from one mini job to the next, dreams of a television career and regularly gambled away his money at horse races. His wife Suzy puts a strain on Jean-Gabriel's behavior, especially as she does everything with her low income to make ends meet with the family. One day the daughter Manon hears that one of her classmates is going skiing during the Easter holidays. She now wants to ski during the holidays too. Jean-Gabriel admits that black people never actually ski, but in the end he promises the children a skiing holiday. Suzy is outraged because the family can hardly afford the daily food. Jean-Gabriel asks what a skiing holiday would cost. Although he gets a ski hut in the mountains from a friend for relatively little money, the costs for the trip, ski equipment, food and other things add up to around 2000 euros. Money that Jean-Gabriel doesn't have. He wants to confess to his children again that he cannot keep his promise, but spontaneously changes his mind when he notices how his eldest son Yann looks down on him with disdain. Jean-Gabriel begins to earn money specifically for the holidays. He collects old ski equipment and other things in the area that would be useful for a vacation and, with a little blackmail, convinces his friend Jojo to lend him his car for the vacation. Suzy, however, has had enough. She stays at home to think about her marriage to Jean-Gabriel. As he is unable to do housework, Jean-Gabriel takes his mother Marie-Thérèse with him on vacation without further ado, but she doesn't even think about playing a substitute wife on vacation.
On the way to the ski area, the car initially gets stuck in the snow. Arrived at the chalet, the Elisabeths meet the landlord Morgeot family and Ms. Morgeot is surprised that the Elisabeths are black. They also cause a stir on the ski slopes and tend to be clumsy on the ski boards. Only Yann is standing aside. He is embarrassed how the family publicly embarrasses themselves. He soon meets the young Juliette, who like him lives in Paris. Although Juliette's companions make racist remarks, Yann and Juliette get on well, meet more often in the days that follow, and finally plan to continue their relationship in Paris. The rest of the family also has plans: Manon wants to appear in the L'étoile des Gets singing competition , while the youngest son Ludo wants to receive a skiing star. Meanwhile, Jean-Gabriel is suffering quietly, as he has only paid the chalet rent in advance and no money for the second half. Last but not least, he gambled away all the money in horse betting in a bar in the village. His behavior causes outrage among Yann and Marie-Thérèse. Yann accuses the father of being a failure, who always believes he is something better, but who in reality cannot do anything and in the end even puts his family on the line. Jean-Gabriel realizes that he has to change his life. Although he has previously rejected the job offer from Swiss Post, he is now applying. Instead of everyone skiing alone, the whole family now gets together and goes tobogganing, even if their already demolished car is finally destroyed in the process. In the end, it turns out that Marie-Thérèse has paid the outstanding sum for the chalet. Shortly before the end of the vacation, Suzy appears in the winter ski resort. She has decided to continue living with Jean-Gabriel. Only Jojo, who came with Suzy, is angry when he sees his car and chases Jean-Gabriel down the ski slope.
production
In Meet the Elisabeths! processed the on Martinique -born director and star Lucien Jean-Baptiste also own experiences, he skied with his parents at the age of 14 years for the first time. The film was shot in Les Gets, among others .
The comedy was released in French and Swiss cinemas on March 25, 2009. The film opened in Germany on December 31, 2009, and was shown on German television for the first time on February 13, 2011 in mdr . In 2010 the film was released on DVD.
criticism
The film service called Meet the Elisabeths! as an “entertaining comedy with rousing actors who manages the slalom between carefree holiday film and social comedy. The irritating topic of racism is of course approached without much bite. "
Cinema called the film a “shallow family comedy that largely wastes its potential.” Meet the Elisabeths! deliver "in addition to a lot of over-the-top slapstick, but also some coherent melancholy swabs," wrote Der Spiegel .
Awards
In 2009, Meet the Elisabeths won! the audience award at the Hamburg Film Festival . The film received a César nomination in the category Best First Work in 2010 .
Web links
- Meet the Elisabeths! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b See cinema.de
- ↑ Meet the Elisabeths! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ New films in January: Meet the Elisabeths! . In: KulturSpiegel , No. 1, 2010, p. 36.
- ^ Daniel Sander: French cinema comedy: Trübsinn? Old news! spiegel.de, December 31, 2009.