Santa & Cie [Santa & Co.] (Alain Chabat, 2017)

[domino harvey]

Watched Alain Chabat’s Santa & Cie. (2017) last night and enjoyed it way, way more then I expected. This isn’t an art film, it’s a mainstream family movie. But as ever I’m impressed with how much credit the French give their audiences in terms of content, as there are definitely a few gags here that would never make it to an American remake. Chabat wrote, directed, and stars as Santa, who must leave the North Pole early to acquire Vitamin C for his sick elves, even though as the film exploits in one of its funnier running gags, Santa has no concept of “buying” things. The film provided me with the steadiest stream of laughs I’ve had in a long time, many of them coming from Chabat’s performance— a former sketch comic before becoming a movie star, you can tell he has an excellent ear for tone and by the end of the film, he’s getting huge laughs just in how he says a single word like “No.” The film’s manic energy in the scenes with Pio Marmai and Golshifteh Farahani’s home life are also exceptionally well-modulated and the levels of mainstream appeal (the harried family jokes will go over the kids’ head) are impressive (and is capped by one of the better post-credit punchlines I can remember). I know some of our French members get exasperated by me praising their local mainstream cinema, but a good movie is a good movie! Plus, as established elsewhere on the board, I am a sucker for a good poisson out of water tale. Not that there’s a lot of competition, but this is surely the most entertaining modern Christmas movie I’ve ever seen, though unfortunately the subtitles (which do as well as they can to find a way to relay the film’s constant wordplay, but are omnipresent as this is a fast-paced and very dialog-heavy film) may prevent the core audience here from enjoying it. There’s no physical release with subs but you can rent it with subs in HD from Amazon

[swo17]

Watched Alain Chabat’s Santa & Cie. (2017) last night and enjoyed it way, way more then I expected. This isn’t an art film, it’s a mainstream family movie. But as ever I’m impressed with how much credit the French give their audiences in terms of content, as there are definitely a few gags here that would never make it to an American remake. Chabat wrote, directed, and stars as Santa, who must leave the North Pole early to acquire Vitamin C for his sick elves, even though as the film exploits in one of its funnier running gags, Santa has no concept of “buying” things. The film provided me with the steadiest stream of laughs I’ve had in a long time, many of them coming from Chabat’s performance— a former sketch comic before becoming a movie star, you can tell he has an excellent ear for tone and by the end of the film, he’s getting huge laughs just in how he says a single word like “No.” The film’s manic energy in the scenes with Pio Marmai and Golshifteh Farahani’s home life are also exceptionally well-modulated and the levels of mainstream appeal (the harried family jokes will go over the kids’ head) are impressive (and is capped by one of the better post-credit punchlines I can remember). I know some of our French members get exasperated by me praising their local mainstream cinema, but a good movie is a good movie! Plus, as established elsewhere on the board, I am a sucker for a good poisson out of water tale. Not that there’s a lot of competition, but this is surely the most entertaining modern Christmas movie I’ve ever seen, though unfortunately the subtitles (which do as well as they can to find a way to relay the film’s constant wordplay, but are omnipresent as this is a fast-paced and very dialog-heavy film) may prevent the core audience here from enjoying it. There’s no physical release with subs but you can rent it with subs in HD from Amazon

This was pretty great but the version I watched didn't subtitle the post-credits scene. Would you mind spoiling the joke?

Also, very confusing to name the main female character who is not Audrey Tautou Amélie!

[domino harvey]

Santa & Cie. (2017) [...] (and is capped by one of the better post-credit punchlines I can remember).

This was pretty great but the version I watched didn't subtitle the post-credits scene. Would you mind spoiling the joke?

Also, very confusing to name the main female character who is not Audrey Tautou Amélie!

I need to rewatch it but as I recall from my admittedly hazy memory, I think the joke is something along the lines of

SpoilerShow

Golshifteh Farahani's controlling extended family is waiting to start dinner until her and Pio Marmai show up, oblivious to the fact that they've (finally) been stood up

[domino harvey]

So I imagine that those of us who pre-ordered The Big Gundown as part of the last sale will have a two month delay on the whole order. How am I gonna celebrate Christmas without a viewing of Remember the Night?

Watch Santa & Cie, the actual best recent Christmas movie

[therewillbeblus]

Watch Santa & Cie, the actual best recent Christmas movie

Was actually just talking about this one last night, as I advocate to get some films on the list of my girlfriend’s family’s already full (and.. not encouraging) slate. I believe you said it’s family-friendly?

[domino harvey]

Depends how conservative they are, but other than a moment where Santa walks in on Pio Marmai and Golshifteh Farahani having sex, yeah pretty much. I’m sure it’d be like a PG-13 if it were ever to get a commercial release here— it’s definitely a family movie, but the French are more tolerant of some things than we are

[DarkImbecile]

Santa beating the shit out of terrorists = good, clean American fun

Santa witnessing a consensual sex act = godless, immoral European corruption of our children

[therewillbeblus]

Depends how conservative they are, but other than a moment where Santa walks in on Pio Marmai and Golshifteh Farahani having sex, yeah pretty much. I’m sure it’d be like a PG-13 if it were ever to get a commercial release here— it’s definitely a family movie, but the French are more tolerant of some things than we are

No, that's perfect, thanks! They're very sex positive, just can't handle any violence whatsoever. If there's even an allusion to animal death, I'm a goner

[domino harvey]

You’re safe there, I don’t recall anything traumatic happening with his reindeer or other animals

[colinr0380]

Now I'm wondering how twbbs' manages to watch The Long Kiss Goodnight.

[domino harvey]

Our French members who get exasperated by me liking popular French films will be happy to learn I hated Chabat's entry in the Asterix and Obelix canon, Astérix & Obélix Mission Cléopâtre. Letterboxd comments lead me to believe this was popular with French 90s kids, but to me it looks indiscernible from American parody fare like Date Movie. Eventually the only interesting thing about the film was learning what American cultural touchpoints the French know enough to reference in their period-set Egyptian movie. Though I guess I'm not expected to ask what is supposed to be funny about magic potion-aided slaves building a pyramid to the tune of "I Feel Good"... I also found Jamel Debbouze deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeply annoying as the ostensible non-Gaul protag. Granted, much of this movie is not easily translatable due to the wordplay, but I got enough by ear (despite the English subs' noble attempts to just write whatever they want for the various "--ix" puns) to know Whit Stillman could have written these lines and it still wouldn't have saved the film. Unbelievable that the wit on display by Chabat in Santa et cie could be so thoroughly absent here

Was also surprised to learn that after so many entries, this franchise still isn't dead and Guillaume Canet of all people is directing and starring in the next one (with no Depardieu but Canet's buddy Gilles Lellouche manages to look exactly like him anyways). The only comedy I've seen Canet direct is the rather unpleasant meta Rock'n Roll, which I didn't exactly like but I could respect for the unexpectedly bleak comic body horror of the last half