Gazon maudit (1995)
Directed by Josiane Balasko

Film Review

It wasn't until her fourth film that Josiane Balasko (already long-established as a comedic actress of considerable talent) finally found her voice as a film director and screenwriter.  That film, Gazon maudit (a.k.a. French Twist), has become something of a cult classic and was a surprising box office hit on its first release, attracting an audience of just under four million in France and achieving considerable success abroad.  This is in spite of the fact that the film deals with a subject which was, and still is to some extent, a taboo in French cinema - lesbianism.  Hence the  film's mischievous title (gazon = lawn, but not the kind you grow daffodils in).

Thanks partly to her former association with the comedy troupe Splendid, Josiane Balasko is renowned for her crude, low brow style of comedy, so, given the film's subject matter, you'd think she would serve up another helping of bad taste and tacky clichés (much as she had done in her previous three films).  Things do not bode well when Gazon maudit begins by introducing three stock comedy caricatures - the over-sexed estate agent, the bored housewife and the portly dyke who's a dab hand with a spanner and sink plunger.  But, very quickly, Balasko subverts our expectations and turns what first appears to be a predictable ménage-à-trois farce into a sophisticated romantic comedy that resonates with truth.  Balasko received a César for her screenplay, and rightly so, but her direction is also worthy of praise, as is her sympathetic and amusing portrayal of a spunky lesbian who proves to be a match for any male chauvinistic pig.  Far from being shallow and crude, Gazon maudit impresses as a classy little comedy, a film that was to the 1990s almost what La Cage aux folles had been to the 1970s, thankfully without the crass campery and hideous pantomimic stereotyping.

Admirably supported by two other fine comedic actors, Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat, Josiane Balsko delivers a lively and original comedy that, as well as being tirelessly funny throughout, makes some pretty scathing observations on the way that the prevailing mindset of macho heterosexual superiority inhibits individual freedom and relationships.  Chabat's character is the archetypal Alpha Male, the kind that expects his wife to remain dutifully faithful to him whilst he spends all of his days seducing any female that comes within shouting distance.  His loathing for lesbians is presumably down to the fact that he feels threatened by a woman he knows he cannot possess.  For a man who is a slave to his libido, a gay woman is the ultimate ball-breaker, all the more so if she has the physique of a medium-weight wrestler. 

When the adorable Abril ends up in bed with the butch Balasko we are as shocked as Chabat, but once we begin to see past the stereotypes a far richer study in human behaviour emerges.  These are three characters who have hitherto lived as two-dimensional archetypes, like protagonists in a shoddy primetime sitcom, and are just beginning to understand what their real needs are.  With its recurring bouts of catfights, name calling and head-butts, Gazon maudit may resemble the usual conflict comedy but it is actually a far more substantial piece than this - one in which a group of childish, self-serving individuals develop into compassionate, fulfilled adults as they learn to rise above their prejudices.  In between the outlandish comic outbursts there are some moments of surprising depth and poignancy, most notably the scene in which Chabat receives a few words of wisdom from an ageing prostitute (Catherine Samie).  The ending may perhaps bring one twist too many, but overall Gazon maudit is a well-conceived comedy with far more substance than your average mainstream French crowdpleaser - the best thing Josiane Balsko has contributed to the art of cinema so far.

Film Synopsis

Laurent, a successful estate agent, and his wife Loli have two children, a nice house in the South of France and appear to be the very model of a happily married couple.  But all is not what it seems: Loli is growing bored of her uneventful housewife existence, whilst Laurent is secretly having affairs with every other woman in the neighbourhood.  When Marijo, a butch lesbian disk jockey, enters their lives, it is like a spark falling on try tinder.  Loli is easily seduced by Marijo and when Laurent finds his wife is embarking on a lesbian love affair he loses control.  Although Marijo and Laurent hate each other, they agree to live together so they can share the woman they love...