P'tit Quinquin (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Bruno Dumont
	Actors: Alane Delhaye, Lucy Caron, Bernard Pruvost
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy, Polar, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 12.07.2014, Cinema Temple du Bas, NIFFF14
Synopsis: On the French Cote d'Opale (in the North), a dead cow is found in a bunker, with pieces of human body inside her. While the Gendarmerie Captain is investigating, P'tit Quiquin is nosing around with his group of friends.
Review: One had to be motivated to watch the four 50-minute episodes of this TV mini-series back to back as a 3.5-hour movie starting at eleven in the morning at the NIFFF14, but I had a hunch it could be good. You should know that the cast in this movie had never acted before, and the director chose them for other qualities, mostly as it seems for their not-so-beautiful faces, their nervous tics, or their speech difficulties. And in the end this is what makes you laugh (a lot) in this movie, as it sadly reminds of a reality-TV show: the characters and incredibly realistic, and at the same time try to play a role as best as they can but with limited success. I felt a bit ashamed and voyeuristic when laughing at/with some characters/actors. At the beginning I didn't really know what to expect, and was a bit stunned by the acting but once I understood it was all done on purpose, I relaxed and could really appreciate the twisted story and the many improbable characters. The movie was presented as a "Camembert thriller" and it describes it pretty well. You spend a lot of time with characters born and raised in the deep countryside of French North, and see how they live with their defects (it is true that unfortunately we don't see much of their good sides). Don't expect a serious police investigation though, the captain in charge is very odd and his reasoning foggy (thus his surname: "The Fog"). Instead, we see a lot of repetition of comic behavior that will make you laugh every time, at least in the first 2 hours. After that the rhythm changes, we laugh less and there seems to be a lack of ideas. At the end of the article you can find pictures of the hilarious police captain, and of the touching young couple. The mini-series will be shown on Arte between September 18th and 25th, and my advice would be to watch (in French at any rate) for sure the first episode and maybe the second, well at least until the church scene. Then if you have the time watch the rest but don't expect to like it as much as the beginning.
Rating: 7 /10