Cabbage soup

[Will]

Did anybody else catch the film 'La Soupe aux Choux' on France 2 yesterday evening? Even by the standards of French farce it was bizarre. Two slightly drunken peasants made cabbage soup, and through the resultant farts, summoned up a soup-loving alien in a flying saucer (who managed to resurrect one peasant's dead wife, as she was when aged 20). It couldn't all be dismissed as ridiculous, because, like the genre of French peasant films it seemed to be parodying, there was an underlying theme of the search for eternal youth and it was quite sad at times. However, it was hilarious, and quite compulsive viewing - pity we missed the beginning.

[Mistral]

Oh, was it on again? It's one of my son's favourite films because he's a great Louis de Funes fan. (can't stand the man's grimaces, myself) I thought they had shown it a couple of months ago when Jacques Villeret (the alien) died.

From reading your resumé you can't have missed much at the beginning.

[Cat]

I had no choice, I had to watch it at the insistence of the french fella.  He was making turkey noises before it even started!

For the first few minutes I sat stony faced, whilst fella nearly wet himself laughing (it's one of his favourite films too Mistral).  And then, and I don't really know how, I started to enjoy it.  Perhaps it was the tiny hamlet, so like the ones so many Brits are so keen to live in, the patiois, the potager, or maybe just the clogs.

I loved the nodding gendarme too!

Learned some new words as well, although I'm not sure I'll ever get to use cannon in the local bar

[Opalienne]

Louise de Funes is absolutely my favourite French comic.    If you get a chance, do try to see 'Les Aventures du Rabbi Jacob' which is wonderful, and 'Le Grand Vadrouille', which must have been the inspiration for 'Allo 'Allo.

 

[Will]

Thanks for the responses. It's certainly not something that I'd have chosen to watch had I seen it in the TV guide which is why I hadn't come across it before. It's probably sacrilege to admit it here but I'm not generally a fan of French cinema, I find it over-acted and over-directed, in particular the comedies. But this was something we just happened across and it was so strange we had to stay with it. I think it certainly appeals to the French sense of humour, while watching I was imagining our neighbour falling about laughing at it, even though (or perhaps because) the two peasants closely resembled a couple of his older mates. It made the George East books of anecdotes look like serious factual literature.

Thanks too for the other references, anything that resembles Allo Allo (in French) just has to be worth watching out for.

[Alexis]

I think that they are 'obliged' to show it once a year.  At least.

Seems like it anyway.

I enjoyed it the first couple of times.

I knew I was in trouble here when folks raved about Benny Hill...

He also loves Mr Bean.