Film: Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
Release date: 4th April 2008
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Dany Boon
Starring: Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Zoé Félix, Lorenzo Ausilia-Foret, Anne Marivin
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Pathe!
Format: DVD
Country: France
Breaking box office records in France upon its release, this comedy by actor-director Dany Boon has been such a hit with the public and critics alike that a Hollywood remake starring Will Smith is underway.
Welcome to the Sticks, as Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis translates, is the story of Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad), a post-office worker from Provence in Southern France.
In order to please his depressed wife, Julie (Zoé Félix), Philippe comes up with a scam to try and get relocated to the sunny Riviera. However, he is rumbled by his superiors, who immediately exile him to the small, dead-end town of Bergues, in the Nord-Pas de Calais region of Northern France, where the strange, half-savage inhabitants greet him in unintelligible patois – the Ch’ti dialect of this region.
Though his fellow co-workers at first only reinforce Philippe’s stereotypical views of this region, he slowly begins to get to know them - and discovers that his misconceptions were completely wrong. He becomes friends with his co-workers Antoine (Dany Boon) and Annabelle (Anna Marivin), and is soon immersed in the daily life of the friendly town. His problems are not over, however.
His wife refuses to believe that he is having a good time, and thinks he is just putting on a brave face. He gives up trying to convince her otherwise, and things seem to be going well until she decides to come and visit him. More deceptions ensue, and Philippe tests his new-found friendships to the limit, with hilarious results...
The plot is not the most innovative in the world; sophisticated southerner moves to the grim north against his will and finds that it’s not as grim as he imagined. However, in this film, it doesn’t feel like a cliché; the comic script is brilliant, with an emphasis on clever wordplay. Despite the film’s huge success in France, and other francophone countries, it is little-known in the UK. It is perhaps hard to imagine how French wordplay can work in English subtitles, but it does. It works very well in fact - the subtitles are almost an art form of their own with their wry substitutions for the French misunderstandings.
Furthermore, the inhabitants of Bergues are not just the naively endearing characters one might expect from this type of film - that would have left it floundering within the realms of cliché. In contrast, they are fully-formed individuals, and the women, in particular – Annabelle and Antoine’s mother – are intelligent and formidable.
Kad Merad and Dany Boon shine in this film as the two unlikely friends. They have worked together before, and it shows - they make the perfect double-act, and the comedy zings between them as they struggle to understand each other. Anna Marivin also stands out as the no-nonsense Annabelle - the interpretation of this character could have become very two-dimensional, but Marivin has made her a rounded, complete character. The comic interactions between the characters and the skill with which the actors pull it off, making it seem effortless, really lifts this film.
Boon is an astute director, who deliberately overplays the stereotypes before completely overturning them so that it is very tongue-in-cheek. This is illustrated best with Philippe’s journey to Bergues: he is first cautioned by the police for driving too slowly, so reluctant is he to get there, and the moment he passes the sign, announcing he is now in the Nord-Pas de Calais, it immediately tips it down with rain. This film does not take itself too seriously, which would have otherwise undermined the comedy. It does, however, demonstrate a sincere, genuine affection for the Ch’ti region and its people, and this shines through.
This is the success of this film, apart from the obvious comedy. It is a film with a heart. Dany Boon is himself a Ch’ti and, since this film, the region’s champion and hero. Never before has the area been portrayed in such a prolific and positive way. Audiences have fallen in love with this film, and tourism to the Nord-Pas de Calais has increased tenfold. This is in no small part due to the creation and development of the characters. They at first seem like caricatures, but develop into real people, with the kinds of feelings, behaviours and idiosyncrasies that the audience can relate to. Antoine’s words to Philippe, “A visitor to the north cries twice: once when he arrives and once when he leaves,” resonate - Philippe despairs when he arrives in the town and we see it through his eyes; a dismal, desolate place in the cold, grey north, but we, like Philippe, connect and empathise with these people. Although the title Welcome to the Sticks has a certain irony to start with, at the end, there is a real sadness when it comes to saying goodbye to the Ch’tis.
One of the most original comedies to come out of France in recent years, this is an intelligent and riotous take on French stereotypes – don’t miss it! KS
