Slack Bay

Bruno Dumont made a Bruno Dumont film in his original region with real inhabitants. Like Li'l Quinquin, some actors are amateurs, some are pros, sadly...

There is no real plot here, no story. Just some days in the North of the France in the 1910's. There are some poetry, comedy, but all of the film is made by the situation of the actors, amateur or pro. The professional are to overdo : Binoche and Luchini are sometimes good, often to much, and so bad... The amateurs voices are always hard to understand, even if your are french. Maybe with the subtitle will be better.

I like this film, the photo are not so good (first film for the director in digital) the colors are usually blurry. There is no real story, the actors are inaudible or to overdo, it's hard to understand, the end are (for me ) not good... But ... i like it ! It's funny, shabby, unhealthy, beautiful, full of love, with no mockery. The director like is region, the people from there (like the Redneck in the USA) and made fun with their reputations. It's a little jewel of burlesque, like a Belgian film.

It's a unusual film, don't except a traditional thing. Take It As It Comes.

Binoche drags this movie down. Most of the other participants, especially Luchini, manage to actually be funny, while she does a tone-deaf pantomime and kind of walks all over everyone else whenever she's in a scene. The misanthropy that permeated 'Li'l Quinquin' is also present here, with Dumont seeming to say that everywhere you turn, you run into idiots. The poor are barely human at all, the middle class is a bunch of bumbling idiots, while the "upper" class is delusional and degenerate. Some of the cinematography is quite beautiful, with an almost 3D quality to it.

An extremely overweight detective and his way smarter right hand side comes to Slack By in 1910 to investigate why burgoise tourists traceless disappears. Ma Loute is the son of a fisherman which falls in love with one of the tourist - a girl dressed like a boy.

More you don't need to know about "Ma Loute" or "Slack Bay". What appears is a very strange and beautiful movie, which lets the viewer decide weather you find the story appealing or not.

It's the first movie I watch made by Bruno Dumont, and I've now put the rest up on my watchlist.

It's quirky, strange, gross and funny. I thought of Ettore Scolas "Ugly, dirty and bad" and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films, and maybe with a touch of Wes Anderson.

It certainly will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love such a gem. I'm not sure what Dumont wants to tell, but it sure is a treat.

It's a surreal macabre comedy, populated mostly by nasty cartoons, many of them are simply grotesque. While Bruno Dumont, the writer director of this film does tell us a very clear story, namely we all will understand what did actually take place on this bay, he never bothers explaining the reasons for the bizarre behavior of his cartoon characters. So we get an unsolveable mystery filled with mean caricatures of the uppermost bourgeoisie and of the police. He does get some of the best actors and actresses in France hamming their way through this weird story. And I would've rated it higher if I thought there was a reason behind this folly. One thing is sure, even if Dumont has some bizarre reasoning for this story - he doesn't want to reveal it to his audience.

One more issue I have to refer to: the name of this film. In English its Slack Bay, which alludes to the bay and to the nature of its residences. In Hebrew it became Disappearance Bay alluding to the mystery taking place there. The French name, that probably is the original is Ma Loute, the name of one of the main characters of this movie. Each name signifies different intentions, and I can't see why the original French name wasn't kept. You don't really have to translate a name.

I just saw it in a festival and a several ladies left before the end. Me, i laughed a lot until tears come to my eyes. You need to really enjoy bizarre movies to like this one. This movie is unusual, funny, rare; the characters are dorky, exaggerated, histrionic, endearing. I can't tell too much without spoilers, but if you like peculiar movies with weird sense of humor, this movie is perfect. Its in the same line of Toni Erdmann but... a little weirder. And Juliette Binoche is awesome here. I loved it but again, it is not for people who don't like stranger things. And I need to complete the ten-lines-review, so I want to say, one more time, if you like weird movies, go for it!