Les Acteurs (2000)
Directed by Bertrand Blier

Film Review

You should always be wary of any film which boasts more than half a dozen A-list actors.  There is of course the chance that the script is so mind-bogglingly brilliant that any actor would jump at the chance to appear in the film.  However, it's just as likely that the actors have been lured into the enterprise for motives other than the purely artistic and that the film's only selling point is its star-studded cast list.  With so many great actors putting in an appearance in Bertrand Blier's film Les Acteurs (and some of those living icons of French cinema), you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was guaranteed to be Blier's masterpiece.  Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth.  It's an example of that old adage: you can have just too much of a good thing.

The problem with Les Acteurs is, in a nutshell, its total lack of coherence.  No single idea is sustained for more than a few minutes and the narrative just rambles aimlessly, without any apparent logic.  Compare this with Michel Blanc's similar film, Grosse fatigue (1994), which, whilst self-indulgent and rambling to a similar extent, does at least have a central narrative thread which holds the whole thing together.  Les Acteurs, by contrast, just looks like it was all thrown together at the last minute, an excuse for a director to reunite himself with his favourite actors.   If the film is meant to give us some insight into what it means to be an actor, then it fails to do so.  If anything, the film portrays actors in an unsympathetic and grotesquely caricatured light - as insecure, self-important obsessives who have only the most tenuous grip on reality (actually, come to think of it, that's not such a bad representation of most thesps these days...).

Having said all this, and having made it clear that this is most definitely not Bertrand Blier's best film, Les Acteurs is not without its charms, and it certainly does have great entertainment value.  Of course, it will have greatest appeal to die-hard aficionados of French cinema who can appreciate the countless amusing references to the encyclopaedic careers and personal lives of the participants.  The high point has to be the utterly ruthless, wickedly cold-blooded and thoroughly satisfying execution of the notorious collaborator Michel Galabru (a long overdue payback for all his contributions on Philippe Bouvard's RTL Radio show Les Grosses Têtes).  Jean Yanne psychoanalysing Jean-Pierre Marielle, Claude Rich having his eternal smile removed by Jacques Villeret and the totally unexpected appearance of Gérard Depardieu also score highly on the laugh-o-meter.  There's a nice film noir sequence in which Alain Delon pays a respectful homage to those acting giants who are no longer with us, although the scenes that have greatest merit are those which feature Jean-Claude Brialy reflecting on a life that hasn't always been sweet - his is the best performance of all.  Bertrand Blier's appearance at the end of the film is also rather touching and does offer some clue as to the film's meaning.

Whilst it's a struggle to fathom what the film is meant to be about (a reflection on the life of an actor or some kind of auto-therapy for Bertrand Blier, who is himself the son of a great actor?), and whilst the crudity of some of the jokes is mildly off-putting, Les Acteurs is an anarchic comedy with a lot of appeal.  Don't bother watching it if you've never heard of Jean-Paul Belmondo - there's nothing worse than turning up at a party where you know none of the guests.  Otherwise, it's a party not to be missed - an enjoyable treat for anyone with a love of French cinema and a soft spot for French actors.

Film Synopsis

In a restaurant, Jean-Pierre Marielle is perturbed when his order for a pot of hot water is ignored.  His dining companions - André Dussollier and Jacques Villeret - try to explain that his delivery lacked force.  This propels Marielle into a mid-life crisis, which leads him to harass Michel Piccoli's wife and then get himself psychoanalysed by a man who resembles Jean Yanne.  Having been offended by Sami Frey, André Dussollier abandons the film, and is replaced by an actor who looks remarkably like Josianne Balasko...