The plot : A guy is manning the phones at the office of SOS Distress, which is located in an apartment building, on Christmas Eve. A array of colourful characters come to see him : the guy whose wife is about to leave him, the idiot pregnant wife, the spinster with a crush on him who knits him a horrid vest, and the ethnic neighbor with a legendary recipe for "Kloog" --a nasty looking log of a dessert. Disaster ensues . . . .
What's endearing about this movie (besides that it plays every year in movie & theater versions) is that it introduces you to the cast of omni-present French actors. Thierry Lhermitte, Gerard Jugnot, Christian Clavier and, his wife, Marie-Ann Chazel. This band, together with a few other staple figures make up French cinema, in my opinion. They did Les Bronzés 1, 2, and 3-- which have a cult following and are actually quite funny even if you watch them in French with no subtitles like I did at first. The film is aptly titled French Fried Vacation in English. Given that the first film was filmed in 1978 and the most recent in 2006, it's safe to say that they are still very much en vogue. This band of acteurs did Les Visiteurs and Le dîner de cons, which was recently remade into an
Le Père Noël est une ordure . . . Be curious, watch it.
This week I'll be talking food, holiday consumerism, and maybe I'll even throw in a holiday horror story. So stay tuned!
