Salauds de pauvres (2019)
Directed by Christophe Alévêque, Rémi Cotta

Film Review

The popularity of Les Infidèles (2012) proved, if nothing else, that there is a market in France for anthology comedies that abound in bad taste.  Seven years on, the concept is given a second bash, with award winning filmmaker Patrice Leconte lending his support to eleven other writers and directors to deliver a film à sketches that invites us to look at the lighter side of the ever-widening gulf between rich and poor.  Salauds de pauvres takes its title (which translates as 'poor bastards') from Marcel Aymé's famous wartime novel La Traversée de Paris, which was adapted into a classic film by Claude Autant-Lara in 1956.

The only really positive thing that can be said about this misguided venture is that a share of the profits it accrues will go to the charity Secours Populaire, which concerns itself with the problems of the poor and socially excluded in France and other countries.  But as the film is unlikely to attract much of an audience, that may not amount to a great deal of money.  The film's underlying concept is a worthy one, offering a well overdue satire on how hopelessly broken our society has become as a result of the abject failure of western governments to reduce the gap between the richest and poorest. 

Unfortunately, the ramshackle nature of the enterprise, with so many disparate contributions from individuals of varying degrees of talent, makes Salauds de pauvres an incredibly unappealing prospect, even for the most socially minded of audiences.  Leconte is the only established film director on board; the rest are first-timers all too eager to make an impact with their zany brand of political incorrectness.  Familiar actors such as Arielle Dombasle, Zabou Breitman and Serge Riaboukine are liberally interspersed with comic performers from the worlds of theatre and stand-up comedy - so there is no shortage of talent, just an excruciating dearth of original ideas and discipline.

Like all anthology films, there are bits that are good and bits that are pretty awful.  Sporadically funny in parts, this ungainly cinematic potpourri fails to make a satisfying whole, and most of the humour (which seems to lean too often towards Monty Python inanity) tends to fall flat.  Some of the sketches would have worked better had they been extended, whilst others should have been binned altogether.  The patchy nature of the film betrays an obvious lack of overarching control, without which it could hardly hope to have escaped looking like a dog's dinner that has passed through a food-blender (or a dog).  Rather than waste your time, you'd be better off giving the price of the cinema ticket to Secours Populaire directly.

Film Synopsis

Ah, what a divided and unfair world we live in!  How the rich must suffer at the hands of a government that seems only to care about the plight of the poor!  In this topsy-turvy world where no one is happy and everyone has a grievance, a courtesan is driven to turn to a homeless man for support.  The emergency social services are on the receiving end of some vile abuse from a loud-mouthed racist, whilst a well-off husband gives a pauper to his wife as a very special present.  Meanwhile, a child on a housing estate is prevented from going on holiday as a television programme devoted to the social divide ends up as a boxing match.  Another wretch who has lost everything unwittingly takes revenge on his former partner, and the organisers of a charity concerned with the welfare of the rich gather for an important meeting.  Then there is the opportunistic celebrity who shares a squat with a gang of hangers on...