Product: May Fools [VHS] (1990)
Rating: 3.0
April showers bring May flowers (blooming all sorts of things!)
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).