Gérard Depardieu

Bye Bye Monkey

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Lafayette with chimpanzee

Translating 1978’s Ciao Maschio as Bye Bye Monkey doesn’t really help the film very much. Literally, it should be something like Farewell Machismo, and that title makes a lot more sense when you actually watch the film, whose eventual English-language title has been overwhelmed by the presence of a chimpanzee in the film. So, where to start with this one? It’s a strange movie set in New York, directed by a veteran, very talented Italian director, Marco Ferreri, with a cast of French and Italian stars. All concerned seem to be indulging themselves in what looks like late-to-the-party entry-level absurdist situationism. A bit of plot will help clarify things. In opening scenes we … Read more

Robust

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Georges is calmed down by a therapist

Robust (Robuste in the original French) looks like it’s been made explicitly with Gérard Depardieu in mind. Writer/director Constance Meyer insists she that she wrote it for both Depardieu and co-star Déborah Lukumuena. But while Lukumuena does nothing but cover herself in glory, it’s Depardieu who’s the irreplaceable element. Because? Because it’s about an aged actor who has got a bit beyond himself. Georges (Depardieu) is unpredictable, wilful, prone to not turning up on set, prone also to making pronouncements about the state of the world – robust ones, to use the sort of adjective deployed by ageing red-faced males locked in endless combat with the pronoun-sensitive, offence-avoiding wokerati. It’s tempting, more than … Read more