Customer Reviews

Cousin, cousine [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you have a playful sense of humor and enjoy films with an early Fellini (celebration of life-quirky characters) flavor, you should make it a point to watch "Cousin Cousine". Released in 1975, on the surface this is just an off-beat love story about two middle-aged "cousins-by marriage" who are drawn to each other by a shared playfulness. These kindred spirits awaken in each other a zestful and irreverent attitude toward life that distances them from their large (and somewhat strange) extended family. They want to experience as much of life as possible, the man has made it a practice to change professions (not just jobs) every three years so that nothing gets stale. They are very open about their affair, reasoning that the rest of the family will think the worst anyway. Not surprisingly their affair also distances them from their respective spouses, who do not share their fun-loving and irreverent attitudes.

The lovers are played by Christine Barrault (nominated for an Oscar) and Victor Lanoux. Although they are fun and likable characters, most of the comedy in this film emanates from the performances of the actors who play their respective spouses. Guy Marchand plays Barrault's husband as a cranky and pathetic Cassanova whose philandering lifestyle is cramped by his inability to cope with his wife's sudden infidelity. Marie-France Pisier, as Lanoux's neurotic airhead wife, subtly steals each scene in which she appears; when a character introduces themselves with the revelation that the only time they have ever been happy was during hypnotherapy, you know that interesting moments are ahead. And for what it is worth Pisier is breathtakingly beautiful.

The affair causes the Marchand and Pisier characters a great deal of pain for most of the film, but by the end they have pretty much adjusted to everything. Marchand has resumed his pursue of other women and Pisier has returned to her main source of pleasure-therapy. Marchand's regeneration occurs with his first playful moment, he mounts a knife (fake) in his back and staggers into the living room to the shock of the assembled relatives. While Pisier's regeneration is the best scene of the film. Alone and fully clothed in the bathroom, she half-heartedly tries to slit her wrist with a razor blade and falls backward into the empty tub, which she unexpectedly finds a pleasant and relaxing place to think. And how appropriate since the bathtub is a device we associate with privacy, purgation, relaxation, openness, and regeneration.

They say that all films are political and "Cousin Cousine" is no exception. Films have the power to deconstruct the traditional values of society and this love story is also a social commentary on the hypocrisy and double-standards of 1970's western middle class culture. And while pointing out these issues it offers psycho-political messages that each viewer can relate to personally and specifically. The theme is that each day should be a celebration of life, experience, and growth.

The grandfather is shown as someone whose long life has given him a real perspective. He is pleased when his teenage granddaughter reveals that she has discovered sex and found it to be wonderful, delighted that she has found something see finds wonderful and amused because her joy is so contrary to the nihilism she had been embracing. He is self-sufficient, the widowed grandmother from the other side of the family enjoys being with him but realizes that he is perfectly comfortable and prefers living alone. He is disturbed by the failure of the family to take any significant time from their lives to mourn his brother's passing.

The strange antics of the adults in this extended family are a source of great amusement to the observant children. The carnival music score gives the many extended and flowing group shots a pleasing circus side-show attraction flavor.

Note how the film opens with one of families driving to the wedding; parents in the front seat, brother and little sister in the back seat. The parents are agitated and scolding, the children calm and attentive to the experience of the moment. They go out of the scene with the little sister sliding over to be closer to her brother and smiling in adoration. The same little observant girl appears in close-up periodically throughout the film, smiling in amusement at the antics of everyone around her. The film ends with the little girl smiling serenely out the window as she watches the lovers leave on their motorcycle.

I absolutely urge you to see this one. It may be the most giddily romantic movie I've ever seen -- the leads are so likable, the premise is so . . . so French, the music is so infectious, and the final shot is just perfection. I won't give any of the plot away, but plot is just the beginning of what makes this work (so steer clear of the mediocre American remake, Cousins). Only bad moment: a supposedly dead character whose eyelids are fluttering like a flag in a hurricane (I think he thought his face was off-camera, but someone should have caught it). I saw it at 10 p.m. in a theater in 1975 and had planned to stay for a midnight movie of something else, but this movie so entranced me that I left and didn't see another movie for weeks. See it!

Two entirely likeable people are suffering because of the infidelities of their respective mates until they find each other. Warm, charming and very life affirming.

Lovely story smartly played by Lanoux and Barreau. The couple takes us on the road of their love story and the difficult and unconventionnal choices they make are, at the same time, a delight and a source of reflexion. Enchanting. Good part for Marchand.

More a Hollywood film spoken in French than something you might find from Eric Rohmer or Truffaut. An affair between cousins (related by marriage) wreaks havoc with the "other" spouses, each of whom has some "issues" the filmmakers use as light comedy. The so so laughs emerge as absurd and morbid comments from oddball family members, though many fall flat.

The two leads really do have remarkable on screen chemistry, the main thing going for this film, but this slight and shallow film doesn't ring the least bit true to life. Frankly, I was a little horrified to see the filmmakers show the children smiling gleefully (Hollywood happy ending) as the leads run off with one each other on Christmas Day - when was the last time you saw children handing separation and divorce that way? Far imperfect, but it has its charms. A better script might have made for a bitter-sweet classic.

What do a pair of shirt-tail relatives do when it becomes obvious during many family reunions, that their spouses are having a fling? This delightful character study shows us! I was thrilled to find this at Amazon.com because I have been looking for it on video ever since I saw it in a movie house over three decades ago.

By the way, it was in Region 2 DVD format, which I was able to watch because I purchased (from Amazon) the All-Region DVD player mentioned in an earlier review.

It begins at a wedding where two unhappily married step-cousins meet. They begin a friendship, very platonic, spending a lot of time together. They enjoy being together and decide not to have sex in order to remain honest with their spouses and other relatives. But of course everyone thinks they're having sex, so our couple decides, since everyone thinks they are, they might as well. The movie ends on Christmas Eve with them locked in a bedroom all night while the families celebrate and stew over what's going on. They end up leaving together. The point is that this illicit affair is more honest and lovong than either of their lives were with their spouses. It's a point well taken, but the simple pleasure of their lives together is certainly fantasized. Other vignettes throughout this comedy illuminate other hypocracies in mid-70's society. It's all very mild and somewhat sugar-coated, with the characters being parodies of types rather than real people with real feelings. This is true of the cousins, too, but there is something sweet and innocent--and sensual in their lovemaking--that makes watching them pleasing.

A silly mid-life love affair turns into the real thing:
with bells and whistles.
The movie is well acted, but slow;
sometimes funny in a sort of disfunctional family sort of way.
I liked it, but it tended to put me to sleep.

I saw this movie, many years ago, on a cable network, and I can honestly say that its my favorite foreign (french) film - no doubt. I would love to buy this movie if only I could get my hands on an English-dubbed version, like the one I saw all these many years ago. If I want to read.... I'll open a book. The chemistry between the leads was pure magic, and the supporting cast provided just the right spark. I would very much like to see this movie again and again.... but ONLY the English-dubbed version.

A classic semi-horror film with no gore or blood, just a good old plot! Set in 1900 six people vanish without a trace,while having a picnic at hanging rock!