Barbaque«, some like it rare

Unpublished article - Erica Berazategui

An old butcher couple versus young vegans: Barbaque offers you a good slice of absurd, cynical, but ultimately banal fun. Impressions.

Sophie (Marina Foïs) and Vincent (Fabrice Eboué), married for what seems like an eternity, are languishing in a town deep in the heart of France. They run a butcher's shop on the verge of bankruptcy, and to top it all off, they don't seem to like each other anymore. This is how the setting for Barbaque (2021), directed by Fabrice Eboué, is set. One day, a group of masked vegans burst into their store to ransack the butcher's shop, shouting «V power». On their way back from a dull dinner with a couple of friends, the two fifty-somethings stumble across one of the notorious vegans: in a fit of anger and emotion (Sophie had just told her husband she was leaving him), Vincent runs over him, killing him instantly.  

Not knowing what to do with the herbivore's body, the butcher decides to turn it into meat and dispose of it with the rest of the store's garbage. Unaware of this, Sophie inadvertently sells a few slices of vegan ham. The ham, which Vincent justifies as Iranian pork, becomes a phenomenal success all over town, including with our old couple, who are won over by the apparently exquisite human taste. Aware that this could save their business, Vincent and Sophie decide to go vegan as demand increases.

Meat, veganism and vagal discomfort

From the very first scene, a certain discomfort sets in: we see (very) long, close-up shots of meat being cut up. And that's just the beginning! As the beats progress, we watch Sophie and Vincent cutting up vegan meat, while observing their rekindled love for each other. The unease intensifies as we watch them save the butcher shop while exterminating the town's vegan population, culminating in two particularly violent scenes. In the first, Vincent bites, chews and swallows the ear of one of the couple's irritated friends. In the second, Sophie finds herself alone in the back room with a gang of vegans who want to turn her into meat, until Vincent comes along and saves her like Prince Charming. To do so, the couple slaughter the three young people, ending in a bloodbath. Faced with this escalation of violence, the audience reacts with laughter. A very sincere laugh (at least in terms of personal experience), but often a nervous one: all this flesh, blood and cruelty is extremely uncomfortable, and in the end, was it necessary? 

Other emotions run through us as we watch this comedy. As well as a deep sense of unease, we quickly feel disgust when we realize that the entire population of the town feasts on human flesh, and watch Vincent and Sophie's dog, Pépère, come to claim human flesh and feast on an ear. Unpleasantly, there's also a hint of anguish when the policeman in charge of investigating the ransacking of the butcher's shop seems to understand the link between the sudden disappearance of dozens of vegans and the phenomenal success of pork from Iran. During the 90 minutes of viewing, the incomprehension and the tug-of-war between empathy and indignation are also apparent: Vincent and Sophie seem so happy in the end with this business of herbivorous humans that it's hard to blame them. 

If Barbaque remains emotionally rich, this film remains very simple, if not too much so: each of the characters represents a series of clichés, with no real personality. We become briefly attached to Vincent and Sophie through their vegan misadventures, while the vast majority of the other leading characters are absolutely undrinkable and lack any particular traits. As for the music, it proves far too epic for the situations depicted and out of sync with the scenes, which at first certainly sparks off a few enjoyable absurd points, but by the end is too much. Leaving the theater, we find ourselves a little shaken, perplexed and perhaps with a slight pain in the jaw, due to the yellow laughter provoked by this zany comedy. Although Barbaque is a film that tackles a familiar subject in a way that's not too head-scratching, but it does have the merit of making everyone laugh. How about a slice of Iranian pork?

Photo credits: © Cinéfrance Studios