lasttimeisaw
Retrospectively speaking, this French comedy's dark horse success mainly can be attributed to the fact that it opportunely corresponds with the sex liberation trend in the 1970s, not just a commercial hit in its homeland, it also has conquered the audience in North America, entering Oscar's BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM race, and most absurdly, it even procures two other nominations BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY, and BEST LEADING ACTRESS for Barrault. Why it is absurd? Simply because it is one of those out-of- the-blue nominations in Oscar's history which don't make any sense to even be encompassed as the fillers among the year's best. COUSIN COUSINE is about two cousins by marriage, Marthe (Barrault) and Ludovic (Laloux), she is married to a philandering Pascal (Marchand) and they have a teenage son, whereas he is in his second marriage with Karine (Pisier) and has a teenage girl from his first marriage. The film blithely opens with the wedding of Marthe's mother Biju (Garcin), the new husband is Ludovic's uncle, Marthe and Ludovic meet for the first time and they gradually grow a platonic affinity while Pascal and Karine enjoy a brief fling on which they turn a blind eye. Labelled as a Gallo farce with its radical anti-monotony feel-goodism, the film is not parsimonious to ridicule all its supporting characters as a mean to attest that the click between two soul-mates cannot be bridled by common shackle of marriage or morality, and quite obviously, the platonic slogan cannot sustain too long in a French romance. Still, Director and co-writer Jean-Charles Tacchella steadily presents their inappropriate relationship through the prism of family gatherings, a wedding first, a funeral follows, then another wedding and the film ends on Christmas eve, each time Marthe and Ludovic become more and more intimate, meanwhile, Pascal and Karine's senses of jealousy and exasperation become more and more comical to behold.Granted, one cannot speak ill of the nonchalant attitude and freewheeling spontaneity of the film's core romance, Barrault and Lanoux register convincing chemistry through the journey, sauntering with tacit rapport, sharing a knowing smile, revelling in their first-time copulation in a hotel, or bathing together; while facing their respective nuclear families, they never sink to awkward evasions or flagrant lies to their spouses or stage a scene to befit their own benefit.Guy Marchand occasions most of the buffoonery as a deplorable womaniser cannot overcome the blatant adultery of his wife, the only threatening moment comes when he fiddles with a pistol, but indeed he is really not that gruesome kind, he is vengeful truly, but not homicidal. Marie-France Pisier comes off appreciably as a jittery trophy wife who is much interested in her sleep therapy than her husband, openly admits she doesn't mind Ludovic's affair, but to really assimilate the facts and convey a healing process, it is another pair of shoes for her.Overall, this light-hearted relationship comedy is a run-of-the-mill novelty from 70s, actually it has spawned a Hollywood remake COUSINS (1989) by the very prosaic Joel Schumacher, and as expected, the rehash is a much more forgettable offering. However Tacchella's career has already hit its crest in his second feature and all his luck runs off since then, he retires permanently in 1999.
preppy-3
A French comedy about adultery. Two distant cousins meet at a wedding--Ludovic (Victor Lanoux) and Marthe (Marie-Christine Barrault). They're both married with children. They hit it off and become good friends. Their respective spouses think they're sleeping together. They're not but they decide why not try it?HUGE SPOILER!!! A BIG hit in the US (and even nominated for Best Foreign Film) this is a light-weight, fluffy and totally unremarkable film. It's flatly directed and the story wanders all over the place. It also presents adultery as being no big deal (!!!) At the beginning when Marthe's husband Pascal is breaking up with the multiple women he's been sleeping with it's presented as cute, charming and even funny! This was obviously long before AIDS but I still find that attitude pretty disgusting. Adultrey is not funny and cute and shouldn't be presented that way. Seriously, how about the kids in the respective families? Their feelings or thoughts are never bought up. To make it worse it ends with Marthe and Ludovic run away with each other and THIS is presented as a good thing!!!! The morals (or lack of them) in this film is bewildering. It gets a 4 only because the whole cast is good, it IS pleasant (if morally bankrupt) and Barrault and Lanoux play off each other well. There's also some minor female nudity. I can't recommend this at all but a lot of people liked it back in the 1970s. Use your own judgment.
MartinHafer
If the movie had just been about a man and a woman having an affair after their partners first had an affair, this might have been a good movie. The first unfaithful pair consisted of a guy who was a serial adulterer who should have needed a case of Viagra just to keep up with his many affairs and the lady was a self-involved neurotic. SO, when THEIR spouses get together and build a friendship and then eventually sleep together, you have some sympathy for them. BUT, what about the children? They both have kids (and one of them is pretty young), but all they are concerned about is their infatuation and getting back at their unfaithful spouses. While this might have been accepted by audiences when the film was released, I just felt this was ugly and selfish. They could have divorced their slimy spouses, but neither showed any regard for the innocent kids. The film is well-made but way too self-centered to have any positive lasting message.
Gerald A. DeLuca
"Cousin Cousine" had a huge popular success in the United States (as probably everywhere else) when it was released in the 1970s. It is nothing more than a love story about a middle-aged man and woman who are estranged from their respective spouses. They openly profess and privately consummate their love, everybody be damned. The movie's value lies in its anarchic and refreshingly droll (drôle?) spirit. The lovers are the lovely Christine Barrault and her cousin by marriage, Victor Lanoux. They win our sympathy because they are such a delightful contrast to the sham and self-pity of their respective mates, Guy Marchand and Marie-France Pisier. Marchand is an especially hilarious cranky type. Jean-Charles Tacchella directed this bubbly and, yes, "gallic" comedy with wit and sensitivity, and you can't help enjoying it immensely. So all this makes adultery OK? Well, we at least are supposed to think that. The movie was remade in 1989 as "Cousins" with Isabella Rossellini and Ted Danson in the two leading roles.
