The Cabbage Soup
Two buddy farmers are visited by aliens who like their domestic cabbage soup.
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- Cast:
- Louis de Funès , Jean Carmet , Jacques Villeret , Claude Gensac , Christine Dejoux , Henri Génès , Max Montavon
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Reviews
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
This comedy is a lot different from most other de Funès comedies in that it's very straightforward, there are few misunderstandings or complications, there's little of the choleric de Funès we know. Instead, at the heart of this film, there are two dotards leading their simple day-to-day lives and eating cabbage soup while waiting for their demise. Their quiet life is only endangered by the expanding city in the background.When they unintentionally catch the attention of a cabbage-hungry alien, excitement ensues, friendships get adjusted, and of course there's a happy "ending". What makes this very simple story so fun to watch are the three main actors, they're so adorable you could watch them an hour longer without ever getting bored I think.
This film, based on René Fallet's book, is a must see in French comedy. For a start it features Louis de Funès in one of his best roles (I'm not a fan of de Funès, I find him too vigorous and slapstick) as well as Jean Carmet and of course the extremely young Jacques Villeret. Jacques Villeret plays the funniest alien (ALF excepted), attracted to a small French farm where two old winos drink and eat cabbage soup before farting under the stars. Jacques Villeret, in what is probably a revelation of his talent to come in Malabar Princess and Diner de Cons is the laughing stock of the film, nicely enhanced by a countryside music (a favourite ring tone today in France... believe it or not).The most important aspect of this film though is the script by René Fallet. How come? Old people farting under the moon? Indeed. René Fallet asks two important questions through this book / film. What happens with old people when their kids are gone? What happens when old people suffer of loneliness? What happens in the countryside when small villages die? And for that twist, that important thought, this comedy reveals a more tragic side. Watch it for the funny bits though.
When I first saw it a few years ago, I have been deeply moved by this movie. Now I don't find it so striking, but when I reconsider it its humanity still remains. The clue is to love the characters, and then you would look sympathetically even to the stupid farting recital. The two old friends are in fact so kind at heart, striving to remain merry and hopeful, though are gradually deprived of every gift of life (youth, wife, wealth, other friends etc)! The merit of this movie is to speak in a simple way about big, sad issues. "Comedy is acting optimistic" (Robin Williams). On the plus side, one should add the great performance of the two leading actors, the jolly "accent du Midi", a too short cameo by Claude Gensac, and first of all the bitter-sweet, child-like and almost unreal solution to the loneliness of the two old men. On the minus side, a bit of a hurry sometimes, and especially the total lack of skill and motivation from the actress playing Claude's wife, ruining an important and rather unbelievable character.The best De Funes film, quite different from the usual bulk.
Everything has been gathered in order to produce The French Movie of the Century : the best actors around (some of them even famous outside France), a great scenario written by a team of highly-skilled professionals (one of them, Jean de la Bine-Boilue, died last year and we will always keep high the flame of his memory), more than one hundred technicians, among the best ones available at that time, two SFX studios used for the UFO scene ... the list would be too long. But, maybe due to a lack of will, the project finally ended into a kind of common movie, airlines-designed film. We all know that this movie had a critical influence on famous directors like Roland Emmerich, the same way "The seven Samurai" influenced G. Lucas, but, with a kind of regret in mind, we have to think what a wonderful movie it would have been if all the people involved in the project would have done their best.