Santa Claus Is a Stinker (1982)

I just noticed that two of my all-time favorite comedies were both released during my birth year, one is "made in America" and you've probably heard about it: "Tootsie". But I'm not so sure about the other, it's called "Le Pere Noel est une Ordure" aka "Santa Claus is a Bastard", if you're French, you already know it's a classic. If you're not, I seriously doubt you've heard of it, but if you have the chance to watch it, go ahead, you won't be disappointed, believe me, it's a laugh riot and most of the jokes won't be lost in translation. Only don't expect a sugar-coated fairy tale with a Miracle at the end, the film isn't your typical Christmas movie."Santa Claus is a Bastard" is the movie adaptation of a stage play from 1979 starring the 'Splendid' actors who co-wrote it with Anémone, who plays Thérèse, the female lead. The film marks the come-back to the big screen of the Splendid Troop: Christian Clavier, Thierry Lhermitte, Gérard Jugnot and al after the two opus of the "Bronzés" series. Their films met with modest commercial successes but through the years and many airings on TV, they became more and more successful and today, it's only justice that they're regarded not just as cult-classics but as some of the funniest pages of French Comedy's book. "Santa Claus" is no exception as it made less than 2 millions in the box-office, probably because of the provocative title or the untimely release (on summer) but it's still better than many films directed by Jean-Marie Poire, his "Visitors II" made more than 7 millions spectators, but it's pure rubbish compared to his early classic.There's not much a plot in the film, it follows the nightmarish journey of a bunch of neurotic/misfit characters during the most sacred day of the year: Christmas. Now just imagine two volunteers at a telephone helpline for lonely and depressed people, the geeky Pierre Montes and Therese, a well-to-do woman, "not ugly" according to Pierre, but who "just doesn't have easy looks". Now take Josiane Balasko as Mrs. Musquin, the hot-headed colleague who's stuck the whole night in a malfunctioning lift. Take Katia, the depressive transvestite in love with Pierre. Christian Clavier is convincingly feminine for that part. Take a trailer trash couple : Félix, an ex-con using a Santa Claus outfit to sell Sexy Christmas parties leaflets across the street, and his wife, the heavily pregnant Josette, Therese's best friend. Last but not least, a Bulgarian neighbor, Mr Preskovic bringing his country's food to the great displeasure of Thérese and Pierre. Now, you have the most colorful gallery of characters, of any Christmas movie.Every actor plays its part with perfection, never trying to outshine the other, and as soon as the first gag starts, when an African Santa Klaus tells Felix to beat it, there is not one minute in the film that doesn't feature a visual gag and a classic funny line, what would you expect more from a comedy. See, there are two levels of fun in the film, carried by two opposite forces, there are the anarchic characters that don't give a damn about Christmas spirit and take it as an opportunity to eat or make money, or find sex or love and those who try to embody the spirit of Christmas out of charity, help and empathy. Therefore, Therese can't refuse hospitality to her friend Josette, Pierre can't refuse a sensual dance with 'Katia' and both Therese and Pierre can't refuse to taste Mr. Preskovic's delicious Dobicous from Sofia. They look awful, and their reactions are priceless, but when Mr. Preskovci specifies that ""They do taste home-made! Hand-made, and rolled under the armpits." My mouth was empty but I thought I was the one who would choke to death looking at Lhermitte's face.Thierry Lhermitte, far from his usual boyish and charming looks, is really impressive as the mild-mannered and calm Pierre, so calm that when he snaps and starts insulting Therese when she accidentally hurts his finger during an attempt to help Mrs. Musquin, it's so unpredictable, so out-of-character that the laughing effect is almost tripled. And there is something both touching and poignant in his interactions with Therese, these two have something going between, and like carried by the magic of Christmas, they didn't forget the gifts. And what gifts! Pierre painted a portrait of her naked with a smiling pig, surreal humor at its best; she offered him a sweater, "A floor-rag." He screamed. 'How beautiful! I'm so happy!" Realizing his mistake, he admitted he needed something to go to the trash room. The movie is cleverly written, not a surprise from the team who wrote the two "Bronzés" films. By the way, I love to consider it as the third of an unofficial trilogy rather than the third official "Bronzés" film made in 2006.Everything works perfectly in the film in every cinematic level of humor, dialogs, subtlety, surrealism, slapstick, it's perfect and carried by top notch performances. Gérard Jugnot is wonderful as the hot-headed Felix, Josette as his hysterically crazy wife. Thankfully, the whole mayhem of the film is punctuated with calmer moments. The slow between Pierre and Katia with the 'Destinée' song is one of the most memorable of French cinema, and plot's crescendo evolution goes on and one fluidly and perfectly until the inevitable outburst of violence and a final explosion of sex, so natural that we're not even shocked, sooner or later, it has to explode. Still, for a film so chaotic, that it remained to keep certain coherence with a shrinking and stinking cake, an albino rabbit, a corpse, a transvestite shot in the foot is a remarkable achievement.To conclude, I will paraphrase one of the most hilariously ambiguous lines of the film, and say "I hate to speak ill of movies. Such a nice film indeed!"

A huge French comedy classic that is available to English speakers on amazon.co.uk. The story revolves around 5 main characters...all weirder than the next: a psychopath dressed as Santa, his dumb pregnant girlfriend and 3 volunteers working for SOS Distress (a help line). It all takes place on Dec 24th and goes really wrong in an extremely funny way. It's definitely a dark comedy but it's simply hilarious. The awesome dialogues just keep coming and it all escalates to even darker and funnier moments. The actors were all part at that time of "Le Splendid" comedy group. They made a few movies together including "Les Bronzes font du Ski" which is excellent too (also available on amazon uk). Anyway, for anyone interested in French comedies, this one is one of the best!!

This is probably the first time I've read all the previous comments for a given movie and found not a single pan so far be it for me to go against the consensus. I've long been a fan of 'Splendid' both as a group and later as individuals (in fact I'm just about to add my comment on 'Monsieur Batignole' a comparatively new film by triple-threat Gerard Jugnot, the 'Felix' from pere noel) and this represents them at their very best, which is saying something indeed. I missed, alas, the original stage version of Pere Noel but the good news is it's now available on DVD so it's automatically on my 'must have' list. It's also going to be difficult to improve on the raves already posted here so really the best one can do is add to them. I think it's fair to say that this movie gives a new meaning to the old gag 'the Samaritans call ME', given that the main setting (it started out as a play, remember) is the run-down offices of SOS distresse amitie, the French equivalent of the Samaritans which is invaded - against the no-face-to-face contact Rule, natch, by three assorted fruitcakes - four, if you count Felix-and-how-could-you-not - the santa claus-suited, gun-toting boyfriend of the slightly enceinte Zezette (Marie-Ann Chaval). The most rational thing you can say about this is that it's difficult to separate the fruitcakes - Gerard Jugnot, Bruno Mayot, Marie-Ann Chaval, Christian Clavier, from the 'staff', Anemone, Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko, in fact the title of the pathetic American remake 'Mixed Nuts' says it all (but don't rush to see it, it's light years away from the original on the wrong galaxy side). Incredibly they pack all the mayhem into one hour twenty eight minutes and that includes the best part of a minute on Establishing Shots. To attempt to describe the labyrinthine plot is a new way to grow schizoid so suffice it to say this is THE surreal comedy they all have to beat. 10/10

Because of a nearly sole scenery, you guess that Jean-Marie Poiré's movie is the adaptation of a play. If the first minutes of the movie seem weak, what comes next makes them quickly forget. As soon as the nearly sole scenery (the flat of "SOS Amitié") appears on the screen, there is a ripple of dialogs, the gags follow on from each other. The whole is supported by an either devastating either nasty humor. We're very far from the crude vulgar humor in "les bronzés" (1978). Let's add actors who are all excellent (Thierry Lhermitte, Gérard Jugnot and Christian Clavier in front). They have a tremendous time in the shoes of their respective characters and they perfectly portray them. The best movie from the "Splendid" crew and one of the highlights in French comedy.