LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973)

"...or not to be."

Four wealthy male friends gather together (with some prostitutes and a teacher) in a large house to eat themselves to death...and yep, it's about as gross as you just imagined.  Once LA GRANDE BOUFFE gets going, it's almost non-stop debauchery, farting, shitting, gorging, vomiting, whoring, burping, fucking and death.  It's great.

In the wrong hands, a story idea like this could turn out to be a disaster, but luckily for us, it was written and directed by Marco Ferreri and has four of the best actors of all time in the lead roles: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi.  Andrea Ferreol is also very disturbing as the seemingly normal person, who get way too much pleasure out of actively cheering on these four men to commit a very slow and painful suicide.

According to the disc extras, LA GRANDE BOUFFE caused quite a stir at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and I can see why; it's a pretty messed up movie (especially back then), but as a commentary on consumerism, I think the film does a excellent job and I would absolutely love to see a modern day remake that is a 1,000 times more grotesque.

Double-feature with Pasolini's SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM for a truly fun evening.

[As a complete side note (that has nothing to do with the review): I'm curious as to what the legal ramifications would be for the character of Andrea after the film was over and the police became involved?  I have no idea if assisted suicide was legal in France in 1973, but even if so, you could argue that what she did went well beyond "assisting".]

NSFW images

Look at the use of mirrors in this shot.

IL POSTINO (1994)

Sweet story set back in the 1950's about a simple dude, Mario, who lives on a small Italian fishing island. He doesn't have a job since he hates fishing, but his luck changes when a world-renowned poet, Pablo Neruda, is exiled from his native Chile to the small island for being a Communist. This is a stroke of luck for Mario because now that there's somebody on the island who's actually literate enough to need a mailman to deliver his letters to him! Mario gets the job since he can read and he owns a bicycle.

Having lived his whole life surrounded by ignorant people, Mario is fascinated by Pablo. Especially Pablo's reputation for writing love poems that get women all hot and bothered. Soon enough the innocent Mario befriends Pablo and turns to him for help when he falls in love with a woman who works at a local inn. This is kinda where the film lost it for me. When I sat down to watch it I was expecting it to be a romantic film, but instead the romance part was very short-lived and instead the main story was about Mario and Pablo's friendship. There's nothing wrong with that, but I was hoping for something more, especially since the friendship between Pablo and Mario didn't seem all that strong.

Still it's an enjoyable film with a nice cast and beautiful locations. If you're into these sort of thing then it's a good watch. As for me though I'll be in my room watching CINEMA PARADISO...crying like a little bitch.