Le Bonheur Et Dans Le Pre

Etienne Chantillez, France 1996, 106 minutes

Francis (Michel Serrault) is the head of a factory specialising in toilet accessories. His wife (Sabine Azerra) is a spoilt, slightly hysterical, definitely stereotypical bourgeois woman who has scant affection or respect for him. Francis' line of work is hardly glamorous, his factory is undergoing financial problems and the workers are getting ready to strike. Only his pal Gerard (Eddy Mitchell) is there to support and look after him.

Fed up with everything, one evening Francis comes across an `ou es-tu' programme on television, one of those where people are invited to make an appeal to a person they have lost contact with in the hope he or she will respond or that viewers will phone in with clues as to his or her whereabouts. There follows one of the best take-offs of that sort of nauseating, emotional and manipulative shows ever, a real beauty! Anyway, on that particular evening, a woman farmer appears on the show with her two daughters, brandishing an enlarged picture of her long disappeared husband that is the spitting image of Francis. At first he denies being the man in question but, hassled by all those who thought they recognised him and fed up of his wife, his life and the factory, he eventually decides to take on this new identity. He moves to the country where his adopted family raise geese and ducks on their farm (the area is famous for its foie-gras). There at last, in the midst of the (stereotypical again) down-to-earth country folk, he finds happiness. He hopes he will never have to return to his old life.

laying on social and regional stereotypes, the film draws up a fabulous gallery of caricatures. The dialogue is witty and good humoured (thought don't go expecting something in the same style as Ridicule), and is delivered by an impressive set of comedians (see Eric Cantona in a minor role!)

Funny and silly, Le Bonheur est dans le pre is definitely one of the best comedies France has produced in recent years. A first class anti-depressant!

Review by Katia Saint-Peron
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98