Product Details

• Format: Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004WZAB
• For more information about "French Twist" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Josiane Balasko wrote, directed, and costars in this lightweight French comedy about a lesbian (Balasko) who falls for a housewife (Victoria Abril) seething over the philandering of her husband (Alain Chabat). The latter is outraged about his spouse's same-sex affair, but over time, the two rivals make peace with the situation--causing Abril's character to throw a hissy fit of her own. This is a cute film that becomes, thank goodness, more interesting as it goes along, challenging comfortable notions about love as a haven from other challenges to the heart. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

A sunlit French farce written and directed by Josiane Balasko, who also enjoys herself no end in the role of Marijo, a chunky, cheerful lesbian who wanders into the marriage of Loli (Victoria Abril) and Laurent (Alain Chabat) and churns it into a froth. The movie gets going with terrific speed: within fifteen minutes we know who is cheating on whom and who wants to start cheating as soon as possible. At the core of the impending chaos is Abril, who wears comically few clothes, and whose trademark laugh pretty well sums up the picture's gusto. The fun doesn't last, of course. The story settles down, the characters call an uneasy truce, and Balasko even starts to moralize on the folly of love gone wrong. But there's no need to believe her-at its best, this lightweight, salivating movie proves beyond all doubt that love is meant to go wrong; any other outcome is a drag. In French. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly good and funny film..., July 24, 2001

By 

XKAL (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: French Twist [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've seen this film a few times now. Each time I see it, I show it to a friend who hasn't seen it. They all loved it. Makes me like it that much more when I see them enjoying it.

"French Twist" is about a cheating husband has to deal with the fact that his neglected wife has found another love interest... a woman. That he cheats on his wife on a regular basis is not the issue, to him. His ego and pride being stepped on by the whole situation is the problem and it makes for some very funny material.

The three main characters (Josiane Balasko, Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat) work extremely well together. Just bouncing lines off one another and interacting beautifully. Just when it looks like all will work out another element is added to stir the fire.

The film was written and directed by Balasko who also stars as the "other" woman who's looking for love and destroying a home. Or is she? Chabat is amazingly funny as the philandering husband and Abril is also very good and quite beautiful as the passionate, yet somewhat confused wife.

Check it out for yourself. Don't let the subtitles hold you back. It doesn't take away from the film at all. Get ready to laugh.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A charming, sophisticated and hilarious comedy!, May 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: French Twist [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is definitely one of the funniest, sexiest films I've seen in the last year. It's also sharp and thought-provoking, challenging trite notions about the nature of sexual orientation, love and so-called "family values." Perhaps that's why some of the other viewers disliked it intensely. Josiane Balasko is charming, sexy and competely believable in one of the best portrayals of a butch lesbian on film. She and Abril are wonderful together -- both hot and tender. This film is emphatically not about a family being ripped apart, but about a self-centered philanderer's discovery of the true nature of love and his subsequent metamorphosis as he (Chabat) and his wife (Abril) struggle to construct a new, more satisfying type of family. Of course, this process is not easy for anyone, and the film eschews facile, Hollywood-style endings. Still, this is a fantasy, not necessarily a model for behavior -- "good to think," as Levi-Strauss believed all cultural productions are, and as enchanting as a folktale. Highly recommended!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even a cinnamon twist is not this good!, September 18, 2003

By 

SandyWells "sandywells" (Galveston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: French Twist (DVD)

I had no idea what I was getting into when I got this movie. As a huge foreign film buff there I was taking a gander at this movie and realizing the script was totally hilarious.

Basically it focuses on this married couple who have two children, a French family. And of course, the man, not wanting to offend all of the women he's ever met, sleeps with them all. (Side note, it is actually a compliment when men make passes in France, it is offensive to not do it, it means the female is not worth trying with; interesting huh?)

Anyway, hubby cheats, the devoted wife finds that a dyke passerby can fix things, be there for her, and even have dinner.

A steamy romance ensues with the wife and her new woman and the cheating hubby does not take it to well.

You will laugh your ass off in this movie! I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say, I bet the script writer has had a very interesting marriage!