Rien à déclarer, the embarrassment of "discrimination"

Nicolette 2022-03-28 08:01:02

Among the various joke themes, the classic ones are often politics and sex. There are many political topics, it can be aimed at a certain current event, or it can be aimed at a political and business dignitary. Of course, it also includes regional discrimination/racial discrimination. In China, every time a regional or ethnic post comes out, it often creates an uproar. It seems that any region, rich or poor, with a long history or vigor, has the motivation and arguments to ridicule other regions.

So is France. Racial discrimination, as an emotion or a psychology, exists in the hearts of many French people. Just look at FN's victory over PS in the first round of the 2002 presidential election and its strong rise again today, you can feel the hearts of French people. how deep-rooted racism is. However, because of the bad reputation of racism, people are reluctant to admit it in public, and they can only tacitly understand each other; and in more private spaces, it is easy to see French people discussing such topics, of course, the tone of voice Must be sarcastic. Therefore, a comedy film with the theme of regional/racial discrimination can best attract the public's attention.

The advantage of this type of film is that there are many materials that can be included in the play, and because the material selection comes from the people's livelihood, it can certainly arouse the audience's resonance. Especially after the characters are dislocated and transposed, many details of life that we are familiar with are caricatured, and the audience can easily laugh.

But the disadvantages are also obvious. Because regional/racial discrimination is still a very sensitive public topic, it is necessary to pay attention to "political correctness", which means that the satirized people in the film must be white people or social groups that have a dominant position in political life, and absolutely cannot Black and Arab. The final result must be that white people have to pay for their arrogance and prejudice, mostly bowing their arrogant heads. Such a plot mode is difficult to produce new ideas. No matter how delicious the ingredients are, if you have to eat them every day without repeating them, the chef will be stumped.

Because it is difficult to release new films, both the audience and the critics will gradually be disappointed with the film. Dany Boon's previous Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis was an unprecedented success, so the audience was hooked, and some reporters and critics were ready with daggers and shotguns. Therefore, after Rien à déclarer was released, there were very few positive reviews, and many comments were very intense and even mean. Although this phenomenon is driven by some journalists out of professional interests, what cannot be ignored is the limitation of film selection.

In addition, it is difficult for such films to do well at the international box office. Because audiences in other countries don't necessarily feel that deeply about the film's subject, especially because of language barriers and translation issues, it's difficult to react to the jokes in the same way as native-speaking audiences. For example, Ambulance, audiences who don't speak French, maybe it's hard to understand if there is any funny thing about that u.

What I respect more is Dany Boon's courage and seriousness. On the premise that the previous film broke the historical record of the French box office, it would be difficult and courageous to create a new work under pressure from the outside world and itself.

Perhaps the cinematic conductor's comments were telling, the ticket buyer in front of us asked her how the film was and she said "It's not bad, of course, if you compare it to Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis or Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez, There's still a gap - but it's still good."



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Extended Reading
  • Alvena 2022-03-28 09:01:14

    French cynicism no longer needs comedy.

  • Camylle 2022-03-30 09:01:12

    . . . . . Wait for normal subtitles. . . .