SAINT AMOUR
France, 2016, 101 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Benoit Poelvoorde, Vincent Lacoste, Celine Sallette, Andrea Ferreol, Chiara Mastroianni, Michel Houellebecq.
Directed by Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern.
This is a French film that one feels one ought to like. Here is Gerard Depsrdieu after all these decades, larger-than-life as always, and with white hair, a farmer going into retirement with a son in his 40s, played by the comedian Benoit Poelvoorde. They both have very good screen reputations. and, in addition, there are some cameos by stars in the past including Andrea Ferreol and Chiara Mastroianni.
Because Robert De Niro had appeared in Dirty Grandpa around the same release time, and De Niro and Depardieu had appeared together in 1900, some of the shenanigans in Saint Amour are reminiscent of the crass shenanigans in Dirty Grandpa. But there is something about American crassness that so emphasises the crass that it loses a great deal of the humanity. It has to be said that in many French films, however crass, they still keep a strong sense of humanity – at least ultimately. That is the case here.
Father and son go to Paris for an agricultural show, bringing their prize bull in the hope of winning the competition. The son, Benoit, has a fondness for wine and so he and his friend, Thierry, make a tour of all the stalls, the equivalent of a Tour de France, putting all the business cards on a map to indicate their achievement in sampling so many wines. Then, it seems a good idea for father and son to hire a taxi and two ago on a real tour of France, sampling more wines as they go.
Their driver is a young Frenchman from Paris, Mike (with quite some dialogue criticising him for having a non-French name) who has a story of his own and wants to make different stops to contact women he has encountered in the past.
This means that it is a road trip, arriving in various towns around France, difficulties in finding accommodation, drinking episodes, down into the South and the spectacular visit to the city of Carcassonne, and into the countryside, finally finishing up at an unusual motel where the proprietress is suffering from early menopause and is desperate to become pregnant as soon as possible – with three compliant potential fathers.
There is some amusement in the various episodes, but Benoit Poelvoorde is often more raucous than sympathetic and Depardieu’s father has some ambiguous attitudes while Mike has alienated the different women he visits.
Back to Paris, exhibition of the bull, possibilities for a prize, but back to the farm and to the pregnant woman with Mike realising that he was wasting time in driving around Paris and that there was a better life to be had down on the farm.
And, the title of the film? One of the wines that they drink!
1. French comedy? Odd couple? Road movie? Wine, the title and the wine of Saint Amour?
2. The Paris setting, the preparation of the cattle for the show? On the road, the variety of venues around friends, a wine trip, personal encounters, the range of locations? The musical score?
3. The introduction to father and son, Jean and Gerard Depardieu Bruno and Bruno Poelvoorde? The father, his age, retirement, farming, love of the cattle, devotion to his dead wife, keeping the phone with her voice answer, the disapproval towards his son, his wanting to relate to him, to share the outlook on the farm? The son, his age, appearance, unmarried, work on the farm? His friendship with Thierry? The wine trip around the show, at the different counters, the encounters with the bartenders, chat, the cards, marking the map?
4. Jean looking for his son, the story of the wine trip? Their hiring the taxi and Mike? Going on the road?
5. Mike, his appearance, age, the taxi, the argument about his name and French names? His sharing the journey with them, his own agenda, saying that he had a wife and children, visiting the woman and finding her paraplegic and ill? The twin and her putting on weight, her scratching his car? The story about his illness as a boy, the black tip on his penis? His self-consciousness?
6. The variety of places where the group stayed? Genial master of the hotels, wanting to help them, accommodation, trying to sleep, the snoring, the man and his family, offering them breakfast? The stopping at the restaurant, Jennifer and her awkwardness, the discussion about the wine, opening the bottle, getting the seafood and making a mess with the tank, discussions with Mike, getting the lift home? Her wanting Jean to go in with her? Lying on the bed, audience expectations, the lament about the state of France’s economy? Jean being a good listener?
7. The party in the town, Bruno going off, finding himself in women’s clothing, his father on the sofa?
8. Bruno, sexual encounters, the effect on him? His feeling he was no good with women?
9. Venus, on the horse, inviting her to the rooms, dismal, their waiting for breakfast, the egg? Her wanting sexual encounter with each of them, the discussions with Mike about his illness, Bruno and his willingness, Jean on top of Venus? Her early menopause, her becoming pregnant, each of them claiming to be the father? Life on the farm, Mike giving of his taxi and embracing the open air, father and son working? The future?
10. The French comedy, road trip, sexually explicit and innuendo, French style, the crass humour, yet the overall humane effect of the men, the women, relationships?
