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Tenue de Soirée
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| Year: |
1986
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Director: |
Bertrand Blier
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| Stars: |
Gérard Depardieu, Michel Blanc, Miou-Miou, Michel Creton, Jean-François Stévenin, Mylène Demongeot, Caroline Sihol, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Bruno Cremer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Dominique Besnehard, Bernard Farcy, Michel Pilorgé, Michel Such, Maurice Travail
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| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Rating: |
  7 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Antoine (Michel Blanc) is just sitting there and taking it as his wife Monique (Miou-Miou) slings insults at him and bemoans her lot in life, with not enough money and a husband who appears to like her all the more when she is destitute and stinking. They're at a dance hall, and such is the ferocity of her verbal attack that she attracts the attention of a passerby, who knocks her to the ground in one swipe and then showers her with banknotes to get her to shut up. Finally she seems pleased, but this newcomer in the couple's lives, calling himself Bob (Gérard Depardieu), has a lot planned for them both...
Some saw Tenue de Soirée as the natural follow up to director Bertrand Blier's seventies hit Les Valseuses; for a start, the earlier film's title translated roughly as "Bollocks" where the tagline for this was Putain de Film!, which more or less meant "Fucking Film!", an indication of just how confrontational this was going to be. Certainly there are many who can sit through the whole of the genderbending preposterousness on offer here with nary a giggle, if they even make it to the end, though the impression it gave was that was just as satisfying to Blier if you hated it as it was if you loved it. One of the most distinctive cult directors, he appeared to want a strong reaction.
With that in mind, it was obvious he was trying to shock as much as he was trying to amuse, but the difference between Les Valseuses and Tenue de Soirée, also known as Ménage abroad, was that back in the previous decade it had exploded onto the French movie scene as a statement of near-anarchy in art films, whereas by 1986 it was going to be a lot more difficult to make those kinds of waves when the seventies had been so distinguished by filmmakers going as far as they could with their imagery and themes, for some too far as the fall out from that era was felt all too clearly for quite some time afterward. What made this effort more palatable was simply its sense of humour.
You could remain stony-faced through a plot which saw Depardieu's burly Bob drive this couple at the end of their tether to crime and eventual degradation, but something in the interplay between three of France's finest actors brought out the laughs, especially if you appreciated the farcical potential of Bob seducing both of them and managing to wrap them around his little fingers (one for each digit). At first it's Monique who wants him to stick around so she can take advantage of the cash he is so generous with, so agrees to be led about the wealthiest homes they can find to raid their valuables - and their fridges - and Antoine tags along, cottoning onto Bob's ulterior motive.
Blier had tackled the battle of the sexes before, indeed the quirks of male and female relationships preoccupied much of his work, but here it was a twist he was interested in as Bob is lusting after the frankly odd-looking Blanc, who is no Adonis, which is where the humour lies when Miou-Miou even looking dowdy as she does at times here appears to be the better option for seduction, not least when she is practically throwing herself at him. Antoine is made deeply uncomfortable by this attention, which only makes it funnier when Depardieu is murmuring sweet nothings and pick up lines to the bald, moustachioed and weedy Blanc, all deliberately confronting the audience in what they would normally expect from a romantic comedy, gay or straight. This weird bond between the three as they undergo bastardisations of basic romantic situations results in ultimate transvestism and prostitution, as if their sexuality has sent the plot haywire, as often with Blier insistently confounding yet hilarious if you're in the mood. Catchy music by Serge Gainsbourg.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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| Bertrand Blier (1939 - )
French writer-director who rarely shies away from controversy. The son of actor Bernard Blier, who also appeared in his films, he graduated from documentaries to features and seized international attention with extreme comedy Les Valseuses. Blier then won an Oscar for Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez vos Mouchoirs), and carried on his idiosyncratically humorous style with Buffet Froid, Beau-Pere, Tenue de Soiree and Trop Belle Pour Toi. Since 1991's Merci la Vie he hasn't had much distribution outside of France, but continues to work, still finding roles for Gerard Depardieu. |
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