Customer Reviews

French Twist

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

I remember this film mainly as a comedy, but when I went to watch it again I was amazed by the serious issues it raised. Genre pieces today seem to stay comfortably in their own domain. Comedy is usually nothing but funny and action films are usually nothing but skilful computer effects. There is a tremendous amount of crying going on in this film that isn't comic, but a real portrayal of the complex arrangement of desire and its negative effects. This is especially so because of the children involved and you have to wonder that if it were real life would it all end so happily. In any case, I find myself now remembering it as funny again because any situation where a pig-headed man gets humiliated will always be funny. Victoria Abril is simply sexy and the juxtaposition of her with the charismatic Josiane Balasko is simply a hoot. It is also good to see issues of homosexuality portrayed in a slightly more humorous manner than hard dramas that end in tragedy and doesn't compromise the character's to a mere comedy of campness at the same time. It is a very entertaining film that you will enjoy though you may not remember the emotional impact it had on you correctly.

Loli, played by Victoria Abril, has given up a promising career as a dancer to become the wife of a womanising estate agent; and though she knows of one woman he has had an affair with and has forgiven him, she knows nothing about any of the others - not even her own baby-sitter! No. Her main complaint against him is not his promiscuity but that he takes her for granted and shows her little affection. So, when a butch lesbian, played by Josiane Balasko, appears on the scene, stopping at the house to ask for water for her van's radiator, she is a ripe fruit waiting to be picked. And this kind, mature, worldly-wise lesbian is an expert in the art of seduction.

On an evening out together, the husband, played by Alain Chabat, already annoyed at the lesbian's intrusion into his home with his wife's encouragement, is driven into a blind fury when he discovers, on bending down to retrieve a cigarette from under the table, the lesbian's hand half way up his wife's thigh, and then sees them dancing together very intimately. From this follow many scenes of shouting and screaming, jealousy and rage. You feel for the husband's usurpation and his humiliation at being rejected for a lesbian - though you rejoice at his come-uppance - and you feel for the wife who deserves the affection she has been so long denied, and you feel for the lesbian with a loving heart who wants only to make the wife happy - though others may condemn her for destroying a relatively happy marriage. The husband hates her so much and is so desperate to get rid of her that he is willing to do anything, and in the end reluctantly accepts her condition for leaving; that he should go to bed with her and give her a baby.

But despite all the passion and jealousy, this is a light comedy and not a heavy drama, and you have the feeling all along that everything will work out well in the end. And it does. The moral of the story, affirmed at the end, is that the only things that matter are love, tenderness and affection and if we get those the source's sexual gender is immaterial; we are all bisexual.

This is a bright, witty and observant comedy, well-acted, particularly by Victoria Abril, and constantly entertaining.

This was a funny and charming movie. Wife learns she can be sexual in ways she didn't realize, and tries to have her cake and eat it too. Boy, she turned into a player. Guess she's poly amorous now! Fun lighthearted comedy.

He cheats, he does whatever he wants -takes his wife for granted; etc.. etc.. He's bigotted and prejudiced; and she gets him back in the worst way possible - she switches preferences. I thought it was going to be a horribly boring french (=deep, meaningful or ridiculous) movie about relationships; instead I couldn't help but laugh and laugh. It's a very funny movie. The housewife is pretty much desperate for some love and attention and picks up whatever comes along - what happens to be a lesbian van driver. They go through all the "lesbian stereotypes" and "macho male" reactions with humor and insightfulness. I think they decided to use specific stereotypes (butch lesbians, pig-headed homophobic husbands) in order to make their point in the movie. The ending is just so typically "european" - non-conventional, and most of all REAL and normally-CRAZY. Fresh. The dialog is very good, it helps to know some french as they of course don't translate everything perfectly or thoroughly in the subtitles.

This movie is the greatest. The story is just fabulous and the sound track is gorgeous and romantic. Alain Shabat, who plays the male lead, & husband, is one of the most talented actors I have ever seen. His facial expressions, and body language are perfect. I love this movie. I watch it again, and again, whenever I want to laugh and be happy.
If you are a woman, and you have been "wronged" by your man, this movie will make you feel exceedingly happy, when you see the tables turned on the cheating husband. It is so, so entertaining. It's my favorite movie of all time!

This movie is really main stream. I thought it was so funny and ironic. Victoria's hubby cheats on her left and right. She's already forgiven him once now she feels like a fool. He dosen't know his best friend let the perverbial cat out of the bag and told Victoria about his exploits. So as a "twist of fate" a van breaks down in front of Victoria's house the woman asks for help and that starts the hilarious chain of events that ensue. I really enjoyed this movie, it's not really a gay movie, it's about deep friend ship and commitment to a person, straight or gay and if you're open to it, your life can change for the better and be more exciting than you ever thought,and people you meet can change your life in more ways that you can imagine you can grow as a person and be the better for it.

This is a very funny movie about what a beautiful wife does when she discovers her husband has been cheating on her. Victoria Abril is absolutely stunning in this film as the wife.