Réalisation:
Marco FerreriPhotographie:
Étienne BeckerMusique:
Philippe SardeActeurs·trices:
Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Alain Cuny, Serge Reggiani, Darry Cowl, Franca Bettoia (plus)Résumés(1)
In this satirical comedy, Marco Ferreri reunites the cast (Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi) from his savage masterpiece La Grande Bouffe, who, along with the demure Catherine Deneuve, re-enact Custer's last stand. Presenting his own comedic take on the classic American Western, Ferreri transplants the historic battle to the site of a demolished Parisian mall and challenges the audience to sympathize with the Indians instead of the cowboys. (texte officiel du distributeur)
(plus)Critiques (2)
The beginning of the movie excites the viewer when four seemingly serious gentlemen acting like university professors elegantly talk and casually plan a genocide. It seems like a cleverly dark comedy, but after a few minutes something gets stuck and the message is delivered to the viewer as clumsily as gentlemen trying to dance in armor at a noble court. Essentially, it is a satire presented from a left-wing perspective - Ferreri, as well as practically the entire Italian art scene of the 70s, was significantly left-wing - and so several classic political topics of the left at that time, such as the fight against imperialism, racism, elitism, etc., can be deciphered from the film (one of the characters, for example, wears a shirt with the inscription CIA and says that he is going on vacation to Chile to relax), but the unfortunately chosen form sinks the director's intentions. Although it is a satire, there is little humor and the film vainly searches for a defining style. It seems like a farce, but immediately one of the actors brutally loses his head in a shot that even many horror specialists would not be ashamed of. The director and the screenwriter devoted too much energy to the effort to reconstruct the Battle of Little Bighorn as realistically as possible in the backdrop of contemporary Paris, so the Indian fighters struggle with the Bluecoats on the site of a large construction site. Period uniforms contrast with an allegorical carriage or motorcycle, it's not very funny, and after some time, one starts to wonder about the deeper meaning of this nonsense. The cast is excellent and if one is to spend time on this film, it is because of the famous stars and their performances. Marcello Mastroianni is excellent as Officer Custer, Michel Piccoli excels in the role of the phony bon vivant Buffalo Bill, and Catherine Deneuve portrays a Victorian woman perfectly, who hides passion behind prudery, which we are accustomed to seeing in very naughty films of the present. The film is strong in its details and some scenes, but as a whole, it is somewhat unnecessary and I do not intend to return to it in the future. Overall impression: 55%.
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Une parallèle humoristique et simplement construite entre deux étapes du capitalisme moderne, se différenciant l'une de l'autre (mais pas tellement) par les moyens qu'elles utilisent pour progresser aux dépens de tous les "inadaptés". C'est pourquoi la limite entre l'année 1876 (bataille de Little Bighorn) et le présent de Ferreri est très mince, ce qui ne pose aucun problème pour la franchir légèrement. Les deux époques ont donc un ennemi commun - le rouge ! Seulement, les visages rouges ont remplacé les opinions rouges. (Dans ce sens, l'expression tchèque pour les communistes comme "Komanče" est caractéristique...) Toutes les autres allusions, comparaisons et similitudes (déchiffrables même par les débutants en politique) entre l'avant-dernier et le dernier siècle découlent de cette hypothèse. La classe extraordinaire des acteurs de l'époque maintient le niveau comique à un niveau acceptable (en particulier Mastroianni, Noiret, Deneuve), tandis que Piccoli et Tognazzi ne méritent pas des rôles caricaturés dépassant la frontière du supportable.
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