French Twist

This film is typical of films made outside of mainstream Hollywood studios; it takes some old themes and treats them with an attention-grabbing freshness. Playing Loli, a young housewife living in the south of France, Victoria Abril is as delightful as a spring breeze in Provence. Her husband is an incorrigible infidel; we've seen many of those in films. However, when the masculine Marijo, played poignantly by Josiane Balasko, enters their lives, the story takes many unexpected and entertaining turns which render a fairly common theme completely unpredictable. Everyone to whom I recommend this film ends up watching it numerous times and recommending it to others. The soundtrack is now one of my most-played CD's.

I read the user comment for this film, my point of view is quite different :

1. I am surprised to see that Gazon Maudit was rated R and 18 in most countries. I saw this movie at 20:30 PM, on Sunday evening, on the main TV french channel, and I don't remember any scandal for this (and we have our share of intolerant bigots in France too...). OK, this picture is about sex, lesbians, homosexuality and triolism, we can see a few times Victoria Abril half or totally naked and Josiane Balasko smokes a lot of pot, but it is basically a comedy with no real provocation. I find much more vulgarity in, mmmh, let's say, the "American Pie" pictures - even if they don't show nudity - than in Gazon Maudit.

2. This movie is funny. No big laughs, but a good story and brilliant acting. We know that the situations are implausible (a nice married woman falls in love at first glance with a butch-lesbian-truck-driver, who will have a baby with her husband) but the characters are funny enough to forget minor errors in the script and you will enjoy the way of cross that the unfaithful husband (Alain Chabat) will have to go through.

3. I gave a rating of 6 because it's not a masterpiece. But if you find the plot outline attracting, if you ever wonder "What would I do if my wife leaves me for another woman ?", or if you want to see an uncommon film about relationships, you will not be disappointed !

Loli, played by Victoria Abril, has given up a promising career as a dancer to become the wife of a womanising estate agent; and though she knows of one woman he has had an affair with and has forgiven him, she knows nothing about any of the others - not even her own baby-sitter! No. Her main complaint against him is not his promiscuity but that he takes her for granted and shows her little affection. So, when a butch lesbian, played by Josiane Balasko, appears on the scene, stopping at the house to ask for water for her van's radiator, she is a ripe fruit waiting to be picked. And this kind, mature, worldly-wise lesbian is an expert in the art of seduction.

On an evening out together, the husband, played by Alain Chabat, already annoyed at the lesbian's intrusion into his home with his wife's encouragement, is driven into a blind fury when he discovers the lesbian's hand half way up his wife's thigh and sees them dancing together in a way that is very intimate. From this follow many scenes of shouting and screaming, jealousy and rage. You feel for the husband's usurpation and his humiliation at being rejected for a lesbian - though you rejoice at his come-uppance - and you feel for the wife who deserves the affection she has been so long denied, and you feel for the lesbian with a loving heart who wants only to make the wife happy - though others may condemn her for destroying a relatively happy marriage. The husband hates her so much and is so desperate to get rid of her that he is willing to do anything to get her to leave.

But despite all the passion and jealousy this is a light comedy and not a heavy drama, and you have the feeling all along that everything will work out well in the end. And it does. The moral of the story, affirmed at the end, is that the only things that matter are love, tenderness and affection and if we get those the source's sexual gender is immaterial; we are all bisexual.

This is a bright, witty and observant comedy, well-acted, particularly by Victoria Abril,

French Twist, also known as "Gazon Maudit" in France, is a French Sexual-Comedy film which playfully explores some aspects of homosexuality, gender roles, infidelity, and homophobia. The subjects explored in the movie may sound heavy on paper, but in the actual context of the film were used more as a means to carry the comedy itself. That is to say, the themes in the film, while not commonly explored, were not overly-subversive in a sense which would the film a "heavy" feeling.

The comedic situations take place between the three main characters; Laurent, his wife Loli, and a lesbian DJ/drifter Marijo. The film establishes quite early that since Laurent is an infidel and emotionally neglectful to his wife Loli, Loli engaging in homosexually promiscuous behavior with Marijo is not necessarily a betrayal to their marriage. The psychology of this sort of 'revenge' against the neglectful husband is what prevents the audience from seeing Loli as a wretched being.

Most of the comedy is based around awkward situations created by Marijo's attraction to Loli. Some gender stereotypes and sexist perspectives are explored mainly through Laurent's behavior, and conversations between him and his perverted friend. Laurent states that he could understand his wife being promiscuous with a female, "But with that?", implying that he would support lesbianism only in the case of both females being attractive. Laurent also states that it is acceptable for males to be sexual infidels to their spouse, but not for females to do so. Also considering that Loli gave up her ambitions as a dancer to be a "housewife" with Laurent implies that upon marrying Laurent, she had to conform to a certain gender role. Homophobia is also explored in the sense that it seems as if his wife's homosexual explorations must be accepted by Laurent for him to progress as a character, and solve the issue between him and Loli. The film playfully toys with these concepts by placing Marijo as the factor who upsets the status-quo, and quickly becomes the forefront of the chaos that ensues. Even with such aspects in the film, it consistently maintains a light-tone throughout the narrative.

The film itself manages to incorporate what may be considered taboo subject matter by some, into a narrative which could be enjoyed by anyone (particularly in large groups/class screenings, etc.) If there was ever an outrage which occurred regarding the film's content, the cause of the outrage is probably more regional/cultural rather than being incited by the film's content itself. The film does portray homosexuality, infidelity, nudity, sex, verbal cursing, and drug-use; which justifies it's R-rating; though considering the film is rated "Everyone" in France, it becomes evident that any sort of backlash regarding the film is justified or not depending on the moral standings of the particular region in which the film is being viewed. Even with that said, I would not show this film to children because of the nudity, sex scenes, heavy language, and drug-use.

The film is a comedy as being its base-genre, so in that sense the film was hilarious in the many awkward and uncommon situations that were portrayed. I would recommend this film to fans of foreign-comedies/relationship comedies who do not hold strong moral prejudices against subversive topics.

As a comedy, the film stands out as it blends in the sexuality and gender issues in. It portraits these relatively controversial issues in an explicit approach. It won Best Screenplay at the 1995 French Academy of Cinema and got nominated for Best Picturefor 1995 French Academy of Cinema and Best Foreign Language Film for 1995 Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Personally, I think this movie is a successful one in terms of the story plot. The story line is easy to follow and the editing style is just the right pace. Things do not get messed up even the relationship between the three is rather complicated. The scenes are nicely set up and every single scene contributes their importance to the whole film. Some may argue that such issue should not be shown in such explicit style, for instance, when Loli and Marijo were naked in the bath tube, at least it should not be rated "Universal" in Europe. However, we may have to refer back to the cultural context since it is rated differently in America. For European countries, it may be accepted to present controversial issues such as sexuality and lesbian relationships in a direct way compared to other countries such as the ones in Asia, where these are considered as taboos.

Overall, I think this is an entertaining film and it is worth watching. This movie is recommended to anyone who wants to know more about gender and sexuality issues, or anyone above illegal age.