With "Les Babas-Cool" and the master-piece: "Les Valseuses", let's say "Mes Meilleurs Copains" remains the last very good cult movie about the controversial 1968 generation.
So what happens really?
Five middle age musicians meet their first love during a concert in Paris(a famous Québecois singer called Bernadette Legranbois) and decide to spend the week-end together. There,each one tries to deal with their own problems, about the past and the present, doing the last bereavement of the 1968 period to go and get further in their lives.The numerous flash-backs remind us how silly, ridiculous and hypocritical they were and they have always been. The characters are at the same time funny and ridiculous. The development of the story show us how they have changed their own idea about themselves, about life and how they have evolved towards old bourgeois kind of people. What is really joyful in this movie is not only the dialogs and the acting which are not far from perfect but to see all the 1968 people's portrait of nowadays in French society: You've got the frustrated artist(Philippe Khorsand as Antoine Joubert, definitely the best character in that movie!),still very much convinced crazily jealous,self-centered and amazingly deaf to what his friends say to him. You've got the irresponsible hippie (Jean-Pierre Daroussin as Dany), who has not changed anything from what he was when he was young,an idealistic freak, who makes love in front of his child and lives off his friend.You've got a frustrated homosexual who has not clearly gone out of the closet, who makes sport all the time to calm down his frustration and the lack of sex he's been supporting all the time since 1968(Jean-Pierre Bacri as Guido). And at last, you've got the right-wing "bourgeois" who changed his mind radicaly about society and ideologies and who tries to convince himself he's done the right choice choosing the "family way of life" (Gerard Lanvin as Richard). Christian Clavier (Jean-Michel) is the narrator "bourgeois" but more intellectual, who tries to give weight and credibility to his change of mind. He tries to remain cool, to convince himself he's overcome his first love deception with the Canadian singer in the 1970's by writing a book! I tell you, the film's characters are so pathetic you laugh all the time and you'll figure quite well the portrait of french middle class society who could have emerged during these decades, the very same generation who has tried to deal with the bereavement of their "ideological years". Simply hilarious !!!
So what happens really?
Five middle age musicians meet their first love during a concert in Paris(a famous Québecois singer called Bernadette Legranbois) and decide to spend the week-end together. There,each one tries to deal with their own problems, about the past and the present, doing the last bereavement of the 1968 period to go and get further in their lives.The numerous flash-backs remind us how silly, ridiculous and hypocritical they were and they have always been. The characters are at the same time funny and ridiculous. The development of the story show us how they have changed their own idea about themselves, about life and how they have evolved towards old bourgeois kind of people. What is really joyful in this movie is not only the dialogs and the acting which are not far from perfect but to see all the 1968 people's portrait of nowadays in French society: You've got the frustrated artist(Philippe Khorsand as Antoine Joubert, definitely the best character in that movie!),still very much convinced crazily jealous,self-centered and amazingly deaf to what his friends say to him. You've got the irresponsible hippie (Jean-Pierre Daroussin as Dany), who has not changed anything from what he was when he was young,an idealistic freak, who makes love in front of his child and lives off his friend.You've got a frustrated homosexual who has not clearly gone out of the closet, who makes sport all the time to calm down his frustration and the lack of sex he's been supporting all the time since 1968(Jean-Pierre Bacri as Guido). And at last, you've got the right-wing "bourgeois" who changed his mind radicaly about society and ideologies and who tries to convince himself he's done the right choice choosing the "family way of life" (Gerard Lanvin as Richard). Christian Clavier (Jean-Michel) is the narrator "bourgeois" but more intellectual, who tries to give weight and credibility to his change of mind. He tries to remain cool, to convince himself he's overcome his first love deception with the Canadian singer in the 1970's by writing a book! I tell you, the film's characters are so pathetic you laugh all the time and you'll figure quite well the portrait of french middle class society who could have emerged during these decades, the very same generation who has tried to deal with the bereavement of their "ideological years". Simply hilarious !!!
