Tout doit disparaître (1997)
Directed by Philippe Muyl

Film Review

Director Philippe Muyl followed one comedy - the delightful Cuisine et dépendances (1993) - with another that well and truly deserves its place in the bargain basement. 'Everything Must Go' is how the title Tout doit disparaître translates and you end up wishing the film had gone - straight into the nearest black hole, never to be seen again. The film's infantile style is more in keeping with that of Didier Bourdon's films and is atypical for Muyl, whose later films reveal a more sensitive and imaginative filmmaker with a poetic sensibility - La Vache et le président (2000), Le Papillon (2002), Magique! (2008). By contrast, Bourdon's films are vulgar, dim-witted farces that are replete in bad taste and poor jokes that are more likely to get a groan than a laugh. Tout doit disparaître is typical Bourdon fare and it's hard to believe that he neither directed nor scripted the film. Presumably the reason why every member of the cast is over-acting so shamelessly is to make up for the paucity of quality gags or to hide the gaping hole where the narrative should be. There's some fun to be had in José Garcia's O.T.T. turn, but the rest of the ensemble are just aggravating, looking as if they are on a sponsored group silly-thon.

Film Synopsis

Robert Millard is a businessman who sells gadgets that are designed to make the world a quieter place.  Unfortunately, his private life is anything but quiet.  When his plant-loving battleaxe wife Irene discovers that he has a mistress, Eve, Robert decides to kill her to inherit her fortune.   He engages a crime writer, Gerard Piche, to give him the plot for a perfect murder, which he will then enact for real.  Unfortunately, things do not go quite as planned.  For one thing, Irene has hired a private detective to follow her husband's every move.  When she discovers Robert's intentions, an incensed Irene decides to take her revenge…