Customer Reviews

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs [VHS]

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

 

 

In 1978 when Bertrand Blier's "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" was released in the United States we were all bopping to the beat of "Saturday Night Fever" and the Bee Gees. It was also a time when the "foreign film" was what Independent films are today: the place to go for the daring, the obscene maybe, the intellectual...sometimes.(Haven't you wondered why so few foreign movies are released in the USA today?)
"GOYH" was something else again, though: at the beginning an anarchic though sunny comedy of manners and by the end a black comedy with big concerns on it's mind dealing in 1978 (mind you) with subjects that are still taboo in the USA in 2002!
The first scene of the film throws us into a situation that is already in progress: Raoul (Gerard Depardieu) is frantic because his wife Solange (Carole Laure),lanquidly eating her saurkraut: obviously unhappy or manic depressive or both.
Raoul is so desperate to make Solange happy that, when he spys Stephane (Patrick Dawaere) in the restaurant, he offers to bring him over to the table for Solange's amusement and pleasure. And so he does.
First there is just Raoul and Solange; then Stephane and Solange; then Raoul, a woman he pulls off the street to comment on what he's just done, Stephane and Solange...all sitting at the table in the restaurant. The exposition is accomplished so quickly and so absurdly that we feel we are watching a silent film comedy. Blier writes and directs this first extended scene with such expert awareness of timing and pacing that it takes your breath away and grabs your interest immediately.
Ultimately, though Stephane and Raoul do their best to make Solange happy, it's Christian (Riton Liebman) who is finally the only one who touches her heart. (Don't ask)
In order to make this hybrid comedy-drama-romance work the actors must be quick on their feet and possess charm and panache to spare. All those involved do and then some: Depardieu and Dawaere, both looking young, handsome and flummoxed, Michel Serrault (soon to make a big splash in "La Cage aux Folles"),as a neighbor who inadvertenly gets pulled into this caper and Carole Laure with probably the hardest role to pull off: part zombie, part plain-jane, part sex pot.
"Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" is pain stakingly and downright seditious in it's refusal to adhere to any social or societal rules...and because of this, it must to be cherished and revered for these attributes even now; some 24 years after it's initial release.

...this film both bothers and fascinates as it tells the story
of a young man who will (in a very continental way) do almost
anything to see his wife happy. The film is beautiful to look
at and all the scenes seem very normal and attractive..but what
is going on is very strange indeed. This young couple go to a
restaurant...and add a pleasant fellow diner to their menage.
The three of them work at a summer camp for children and the
wife is seduced by a twelve year old boy. This is one of those
films which one goes back to time after time and finds fascinating and mystifying. The actors and performances are
simply perfect, but the film never fails to both delight and
disturb. Its world looks like our world, but many things have
gone askew. Prepare for an unusual experience.

Blier creates a world that illustrates what men really know about women: Nothing! Depardieu and Dewaere deliver two brilliant performances that seem like one. They are friends joined by their common ignorance about what goes on inside a woman's head. The final twist and their ultimate realization of the futility of their mission is satisfying, as well as the other comic situations. The film's charm is that the humor is wild, but somehow never goes completely over the top. I highly recommend this comic gem. I don't think Depardieu has ever been better, and Dewaere matches him perfectly.

Gerard Depardieu is married to an unresponsive woman; thinking a lover might help cheer her up, he gets her one. When this doesn't work both men come to the conclusion that having a baby would do the trick. But this too fails. At end only a 14-year-old boy brings her out of the doldrums--and gets her pregnant. Highly improbable, but very funny. Won an Academy Award.

You will laugh out loud--unless you go "Huh?" And its a little erotic, too.

A wonderful look at the unconventionality of true happiness, this film will strike home with some and disturb others. It is at once a jab at both constrictive and "sensitive" men, matched and mismatched with warm and emotional yet manipulated and foolish women. Everything is set to right in the end, although some pairings will certainly surprise when viewed in the context of the beginning. Suffused with genuine wackiness and a nearly omnipresent joie de vivre, this film does not fail to tickle the funny bone despite the serious undertones. In the end this film resounds with an odd sort of hope by proving that of all of us, the so-called "experts" on life and love are usually the most mistaken about every situation we encounter.

To say that this movie is not for everybody would be putting it mildly. There are plenty of people who would label as perverse a movie which culminates in a 12-year-old prodigy seducing & impregnating a grown woman, and this would not be an unfair assessment.

And yet, one could say that the most perverse thing about this movie is that the humor works. Situations which should have left me appalled instead left me smiling & laughing, because when all is said & done, this is one well-crafted movie. One can argue whether the absurdity trumps the perversity, but noone can argue that this is an exceedingly well-made, well-acted production.

It was awonderful experience to watch this movie, first by myself and secondly with a few friends. We all ended discussing the contents, the scenes, the plot and everything that made that movie so interesting. I didn't expect less from Gerard Depardieu acting..Very entertaining and super..We all enjoyed it and cannot wait to watch another one in the same category..Still we want Gerad depardieu and his serious crew...Very good, very pleasant movie...

I took note of "Get Out Your Hankerchiefs" because it won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film" in 1978. I did enjoy it but I had a reaction similar to the one I got from "Murmers of the Heart". "Murmers" pushed the envelope even farther than "Get Out Your Hankerchiefs" did but this comedy does eventually evolve into something that many will not see the humor in. The director coaxes us into what many, myself included, were reluctantly ready to go along with. However, when he carries it further, I was left disappointed. Too bad, becaue I liked the inanity of the situation that was initially presented. There is a lot of unique humor that is able to happen in this movie and there is a lot of talent involved in making it all happen. I have come to accept that many European movies have relaxed standards compared to those in American Cinema. Usually that means that I have to wait for the kids to go to bed to watch what would otherwise be a standard PG-13 film. However, there are still taboos in our society. A film like "Murmers of the Heart" might dare to examine them but for a film like "Get out your Hankerchiefs" to ignore and/or make light of them just didn't sit well with me. I like to fancy myself an "enlightened prude" but the latter portion of "Get Out Your Hankerchiefs" reminded me that I must be a prude first and enlightened second. I guess I cling to the idea that there are so many better ways to create a great movie without stooping to this level. In all fairness, I should give this movie a "4 Star" rating but I took one away for propriety's sake.

Try as I might I will never understand french humor. Yes this movie was funny and yes the acting is excellent don't get me wrong but come on the whole 12 year old kid suducing a grown women thing??? I don't understand maybe I just don't think very deeply.