Screenwriter Julien Hervé makes his debut as a director on Spanish screens with his second film, a comedy about social and national prejudices, in the wake of the vein discovered by ‘Welcome to the North’ (D. Boon, 2008) and reaffirmed by ‘My God, but what have we done to you?’ (P. de Chauveron, 2014) and its consequences. It is no coincidence that the film focuses on Christian Clavier, protagonist of the aforementioned saga and king of French comedy, devoted to his conceited character.
Hervé has chosen to stage the cinema of meetings with surprise and conflict, rich in dialogue, in line with ‘The Name’ (A. de La Patellière and M. Delaporte, 2012) or ‘Perfetti sconosciuti’ (P. Genovese , 2016). The proposal is ingenious and very fun: Can one be sure of the purity of one’s own origin and achieved social status? The action takes a while to reach the crux of the plot, where, however, the film gains strength, sticking to the Gallic idiosyncrasy. It is not in vain that its original title, ‘Cocorico’, French equivalent to our quiquiriquí, refers to the crowing of the rooster, a symbol of national pride and emblem of the neighboring country.
For viewers open to laughing at their own prejudices.
The best: the sequence in which they turn to the Portuguese plumber.
Worst: A more dynamic montage would have been appreciated.
Data sheet
Address: Julien Hervé Distribution: Christian Clavier, Didier Bourdon, Sylvie Testud, Marianne Denicourt Country: France Year: 2024 Release date: 01-5-2024 Gender: Comedy Script: Julien Hervé Duration: 91 min.
Synopsis: Alice and François are about to get married and decide to reunite their two families. For the occasion, they have prepared a very special gift for their parents: DNA tests so that everyone can know the origin of their ancestors. But the surprise turns into a fiasco when the Bouvier-Sauvages, a large aristocratic family, and the Martins, much more modest, discover the results, which are, to say the least… unexpected!
Three decades dedicated to reporting on movies, my passion. The moving image was the last of the Fine Arts to emerge, the seventh, but it was the first that was born with the wonderful vocation of being enjoyed by the majority and equally. People like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, François Truffaut, García Berlanga, Vittorio de Sica and Steven Spielberg, masters of the image and, above all, great storytellers, understood this and made films for everyone. I have been fortunate to be able to tell it in Fotogramas, Onda Cero and El Mundo, among other media; and in books such as ‘Hollywood Naked’ and ‘Black Chronicle of Hollywood’. Member of the Film Academy (since 2006).
