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Whistle Stopper - May Fools
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price:
Your Save: $ 19.98 ( 100% )
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Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Miou-Miou, Michel Piccoli, Michel Duchaussoy, Bruno Carette, Paulette Dubost
Directed By: Louis Malle
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792842637
Format: Color
ISBN: 0792842634
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: 1999-12-14
Running Time: 107
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1990-07
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Comment: A perfect final film from Louis Malle. Shades of Renoir & Bergman, this is in its structure an almost a classic farce but it also contains a steak of absurdist Bunuelian irony (Carrière was the scriptwriter of some of Bunuel's best films). Best of all are the wonderful performances so beautifully orchestrated by the most human of directors.
Why no DVD???
Customer Rating: 
Summary: April showers bring May flowers (blooming all sorts of things!)
Comment: The English always called May "the lusty month" when every little whim whether wholesome or unwholesome comes into bloom ;the cold cabin fever of Winter is cast off and all senses are awakened......AND WATCH OUT!....anything goes!From France,Louis Malle has scripted a clever social satire about the upper-class Vieuzac family whose "May fever" turns into full blown upheaval when the family returns to their ancestral home when the matriarh of the family dies.The clan is indeed a most mixed bag of spoiled,greedy and "dysfunctional " characters who act out their "Tomfoolery" ,nearly destroying each other and everyone else around them,as they all march in to the decaying villa to dibby-up the goods and lay claim to their inheritance.All of the Vieuzacs' silliness plays out against the backdrop of the student revolution occuring in Paris at the same time.The two stories weave together in order to create some bizarre behaviour.The one character that fascinated me most was the little 11- year- old Francoise who is the near-silent observer of this entire situation.She observes,she asks questions,she is swept along and is a part of every piece of the action,yet remains detached and unchanged by it all.This movie is more wry and witty than hilarious and uproarious.The film is wonderfully subtitled in bold yellow subtitles making it extremely easy to follow.Though this film,with it's political backdrop is best understood by those who understand 1960's Europe, the theme of the Dysfunctional family is universal.
Some great companion films with similar themes would be DADDY's DYIN',WHO'S GOT THE WILL (USA),PIECES OF APRIL (USA),THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (USA),THE FAMILY STONE (USA),THE CELEBRATION (France),A LOVING FATHER (France) and THE SEA (Iceland).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sharp comedy
Comment:
Louis Malle's superb social satire set during the time of the Paris student demonstrations in 1968. A large family gathers at the rural estate of the just-deceased matriarch. They are a varied bunch, but most of them are motivated by one thing: greed. Their only thought is how to divide up the property. But 1968 is a chaotic time, not only politically, but sexually too: the sexual revolution has begun and Malle pokes a great deal of fun at it through the blossoming horniness of these people. When reports from Paris are at their worst, the family deserts the estate and wanders the countryside overnight, fearing they will be targets of the communists. The contrast between the supposedly altruistc "revolution" unfolding on the streets of Paris and the self-centered, avaricious behavior of this family makes for wonderfully pointed comedy. In lesser hands this movie might come across as being pretentious and dull, but Malle can get to the heart of the matter very well and produces an excellent little comedy targeted at the sixties.
Customer Rating:
Summary: midsummer nights social comedy
Comment: With a hint of Renoir's Rules of the Game as well as Chekov's Cherry Orchard, and everything in between this town and country comedy begins with the tragedy of the family matriarchs death. The extended family gathers for a weekend funeral but the ceremony is delayed because of a workers strike which has brought life to a standstill. In the stillness of the country the weekend turns into an extended retreat that becomes more and more bohemian and brazen as the country air and contact with the soil has put each character in contact with their true desires and it seems everyone is with the wrong person. An all day picnic in the sun turns into a partner swapping party but is interrupted at the last minute when rumours of government collapse reach the isolated country estate. Fearing that an all out revolution has begun the family packs up and hikes into the woods until they finally end up in a cave in an ultimate act of cultural regression. Great cast of characters make up the family members and their spouses and lovers(including hippie, lesbian, revolutionary student, resentful daughter, unsupecting heiress maid, ....). The odd assortment makes for a volatile social mix leading to all kinds of destabilising conversations and confrontations which threaten to undermine the family structure from within. Malle cleverly has the family itself come unhinged as they attempt to act out in the personal sphere those revolutionary philosophies being put forth in the public. Everyone has different notions so the result is chaos, unrestrained anarchy, but it remains funny and entertaining all the way through. As well Malle provides wise and pointed observations with a surprising amount of social insight along the way. In short you get a lot more than you might have bargained for but you're glad to get it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Connected to Place
Comment: Urban, suburban, rootless, nomadic: if these words describe your experience, this film will leave you cold. Agrarian, transplanted, uprooted, trying to re-connect to a rich family tradition? This film is for you. The plight of a man who is part of the land, and whose land is part of him, really moved me. This film asks, "What do you value, and why?" It affirms the worth of connectedness, continuity, and deep roots, while challenging our cultural idols of speed, change, and the new.
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