Pas très normales activités (2013) Directed by Maurice Barthélémy
Comedy
Film Synopsis
After the sudden death of his grandmother, Octave decides to take up residence
in her old house in the country with his girlfriend Karine. The latter
is less enthusiastic about the move and fails to see anything attractive
about the uncomfortable homestead buried deep in the Creuse countryside of
central France. Octave is all for starting a new life and plans to
earn his crust as a painter, taking inspiration from the picturesque location.
He keeps a record of his days by habitually filming everything that happens
on his mobile phone. During the night, the couple begin to experience
a series of strange and worrying phenomena. There are odd moaning noises,
slight tremors and a mysterious red smoke drifting across the floor.
The reaction of their neighbours leads Octave and Karine to think that their
new home is haunted. One possible explanation is that Octave's grandmother
was murdered - but by whom? The finger of suspicion points towards
the suspiciously mute Monsieur Levantour, who is frequently seen loitering
around the property. Did he kill the old woman because of some petty
vendetta? To resolve the mystery, the couple invite a stranger, Thierry
Musseau, into their house to film the bizarre goings on. It soon becomes
apparent that Musseau is some kind of weird pervert, the sort that takes
pleasure in sniffing soiled underwear. Realising that it is the spirits
of his grandmother's dead pigs who are haunting the house Octave decides
to hold a séance. Unable to speak the pigs' language, he has
no option but to enlist the help of Levantour, himself a victim of the pigs'
curse, in exorcising the porcine menace once and forever...
In the 1940s, the shadowy, skewed visual style of 1920s German expressionism was taken up by directors of American thrillers and psychological dramas, creating that distinctive film noir look.
Continental Films, quality cinema under the Nazi Occupation
At the time of the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the German-run company Continental produced some of the finest films made in France in the 1940s.