Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier
With open arms. After the success of his very good film What have we done to God? (2014), starring Christian Clavier as the traditional right-wing Frenchman confronted with multiculturalism and his daughters' partners, Philippe de Chauveron signs his eighth opus. The cast includes Christian Clavier and Ary Abittan. The story is also based on the same idea, except this time it's not the Catholic bourgeoisie that comes up against difference, but the caviar left.
Indeed, Clavier plays Jean-Étienne Fougerole, an obvious caricature of multiculturalist intellectuals à la Bernard-Henri Lévy. On a TV set, he gives in to popular pressure to avoid losing the debate and declares, in front of his far-right opponent, that he would be willing to welcome Roma into his home to set an example. Naturally, his generous appeal was taken literally. Travellers« will arrive at his home.
The script, co-written by the director and his brother Marc de Chauveron, has all the ingredients of a good comic recipe. But the accumulation of prejudices taken to extremes and the antipathy provoked in the viewer towards the Roma as well as towards the bobo couple, despite the fact that they are very well played by Christian Clavier and Elsa Zylberstein, means that no one in the room is laughing. Not for a moment. It's the first time I've had such an experience in front of a comedy, albeit with a relatively large audience.
It's true that the film hasn't been acclaimed by the press, to say the least. Labeled as «racist», «nauseating» and «detestable», this new French comedy received only one positive review, that of Figaro. He sees this controversy as proof that it's becoming difficult to make a comedy in France without veering into political correctness. The right-wing newspaper is undoubtedly right on this point. The fact remains that the film is not a success, for the simple reason that a comedy is supposed to make people laugh.
And yet, from start to finish, the atmosphere is tense. Every line of dialogue confirms our anti-Roma clichés. We wonder when the film will provoke us to question the countless stereotypes it conveys. It never does. One excess follows another: the group leader has metal teeth, he steals, he threatens to kill anyone who touches his virgin daughter, his retarded cousin hunts moles with his teeth before devouring them, their accent doesn't really correspond to gypsy reality, but more to recycled Negro.
The examples could go on and on, but let's move on. Whereas the result of comedy should be reflexive laughter, the questioning of ourselves or a social group, the result of’With open arms seems to be somewhere between annoyance and anger. Anger at this dirty, dishonest, invasive population. It would no doubt have been more effective to focus the camera on the bourgeois left, which can't seem to put into practice the moral lessons it preaches all day long, instead of pretending to question our vision of the Roma, which we're not going to give up anyway.
Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © i.ytimg.com
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