Starring: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Vincent Macaigne, Alban Ivanov
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Runtime: 116 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2018
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From the writer-directors responsible for ‘The Intouchables’, the Gallic feel-good hit of 2011, comes the Gallic feel-good hit of 2018, ‘C’est La Vie’. Just as ‘The Intouchables’ put a spin on the odd couple comedy, ‘C’est La Vie’ takes aim at the tried and tested ensemble wedding movie. However, rather than focus on the bride and groom and their sprawling bevy of friends and family, we follow event planner Max (Jean-Pierre Bacri) and his crew of inept employees. Even though it flirts with serious questions about love and catastrophe, it remains a breezy, impressively mounted and well-acted lark, and should prove a hit with fans of the filmmakers’ previous work.
Max’s company has been hired to run a lavish wedding in a gorgeous 17th-century chateau. The groom, Pierre (Benjamin Lavernhe), could be generously described as a bit of a control freak, so Max is understandably keen that everything run smoothly. What’s more, Max is nearing retirement and fielding buyout offers, so his interest in maintaining the valuable goodwill of his company is heightened. Of course, nothing goes to plan.
Several calamitous mistakes occur, igniting the comedic bonfire constructed by the screenplay’s broad set-up. These problems include the main courses being spoiled when a mobile freezer has its extension cord unplugged, the wait staff revolting against requirements that they wear period costumes, and Max’s hopeless brother-in-law and part-time waiter Julien (Vincent Macaigne) hitting on a former flame, Héléna (Judith Chemla), who also happens to be the bride. Even the higher ups can’t meet Max’s expectations of them: his second-in-command Adèle (Eye Haidara) keeps butting heads with the self-important front man of the wedding band, James (Gilles Lellouche), and his photographer friend Guy (Jean-Paul Rouve) keeps proving why clients are so reluctant to hire him. Max’s personal life is also in turmoil; he and his wife are taking a break, but because his mistress also happens to be his assistant, Josiane (Suzanne Clément), it’s impossible for Max to separate his private and professional problems. Max simply can’t catch a break.
Playing Max, Jean-Pierre Bacri is the glue that keeps all these disparate strands together, his ballooning frustration and disappointment giving viewers someone to cheer for amidst the chaos. Bacri’s greatest achievement is making Max sympathetic despite his infidelity and his occasional bad-tempered outbursts. We first meet Max making short work of a couple who ask him to meet their ever-decreasing wedding budget, but his creative tirade against their tight purse strings never feels short of just. You want Max to be successful and happy, a seemingly impossible outcome from his vantage point, but that empathy kept me invested in his journey until the final wedding guest had hit the road. The rest of the French cast is also good, variously convincing in their respective degrees of bumbling and self-centredness while dancing nimbly away from farce.
The chateau setting is well-used by the directors, who spread the action through their stunning backdrop, marshalling hundreds of the background actors to fill every corner of the frame with bustling activity and life. These generous frames help some of the jokes along, including one particularly elaborate set-up for a sight gag set at a themed bar mitzvah. The film’s brisk editing uses Avishai Cohen’s jazzy score to smooth over ample time jumps and maintain momentum, but Nakache and Toledano also know when to roll out an extravagant musical montage, one of which surrounding a surprise prepared by Pierre is surreal and jaw-droppingly gorgeous, amusing and emotively powerful.
As one might expect from the men responsible for ‘The Intouchables’, the story is wrapped up in a feel-good bow and should prove a satisfying viewing experience for Australian viewers. Given how quietly this release snuck up on our shores, one imagines that it won’t attain the same crossover success as Nakache and Toledano’s 2011 triumph, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth your attention. Don’t wait to hear about ‘C’est La Vie’ from your friends, as was so often the case for domestic viewers of ‘The Intouchables’ – see it first so that you can be that culturally up-to-date friend doing the recommending.
Callum Ryan is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.
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