Customer Reviews

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks) 2 DVD Special Edition / in French with English Subtitles [PAL, Region 2, Import]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant French comedy when I went to see it at a cinema in NZ. Tracking down a Region 2 copy to watch in the UK, however, proved much more difficult and I was thrilled when I managed to source this one from the US no less. Everything worked superbly and friends were much amused by the crazy antics of the mad men in . . . le Nord!

Dany Boon's Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis/Welcome to the Sticks became France's biggest box-office hit in record time when it pulled in over $184m in France alone, although it's made barely a ripple in the English-speaking world - a shame, because this good natured culture clash comedy is a lot of fun. Kad Merad is the post office manager who gets caught pretending to be disabled to secure a transfer to the South of France only to be given the worst punishment in the post office's power: a transfer to the cold north of France, the Toxteth or Detroit of France. Once there he quickly discovers that (unlike Toxteth) it's not the backward disease-ridden inbred peasant slum of popular ridicule, but finds that comforting his imagined suffering cheers up his depressed wife back home, so ends up persuading his new friends to live down to all the horror stories when she comes to visit...

It's not the most original plot or treatment in the world, with much of the wordplay built around the local accent that adds chti to every other word straight out of Abbott and Costello's Who's On First routine, but while predictable it's still very funny more often than not. The early scenes are among the funniest, be it Michel Galabru's Dickensian (or should that be Hugoian?) horror stories of a childhood in the north to the sympathetic traffic cop who tears up a ticket when he finds out the condemned man's destination, and the end is rather abrupt, but it's a confident feelgood comedy that delivers the goods. Kudos to Michael Katims' excellent subtitle adaptation that manages to pull off the tricky alliteration, puns and wordplay that a lesser translator might decide were simply untranslatable.

The French PAL 2-disc set offers a wealth of unsubtitled extras, from a few deleted scenes and outtakes to lengthy documentaries and a themed French episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionare, but the film itself boasts both optional English subtitles and a very good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer.