SYNOPSICS
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008) is a French movie. Dany Boon has directed this movie. Kad Merad,Dany Boon,Zoé Félix,Lorenzo Ausilia-Foret are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008) is considered one of the best Comedy,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France. Leaving his child and wife behind, the crucified man leaves for his frightening destination, a dreadfully cold place inhabited by hard-drinking, unemployed rednecks, speaking an incomprehensible dialect called Ch'ti. Philippe soon realizes that all these ideas were nothing but prejudices and that Bergues is not synonymous with hell...
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Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008) Reviews
Truly funny French comedy
Of course it's not a deep film, but nor is it pretentious. It might also not please everyone - if you don't want to have a good laugh, or if your French is challenged, you could find it dull. But true laugh-out-loud comedies that feel genuine and refreshing (like this one) instead of grotesque and vulgar are few and far in between. Moreover, and even more rare, the whole audience - me included - seemed to be howling in laughter, not just three people making a lot of noise. While the pun is largely based on the local "ch'ti" dialect, it is not limited to it and humour works throughout, well timed and mastered by the actors. The dialect itself was ably used, and the audience are introduced to it nicely. Boon is wonderful, both touching and funny, and Kad Merad delivers a nice performance. More than the dialect or the actors, the region itself and its people are beautifully pictured, and the spirit is well captured. Clichés are used for comedic purpose, and are dispelled instead of being woven. Amateurs will also find an incredible short appearance by Michel Galabru (my favourite part of the film). The film never aims to be realistic, and never seems pretentious, but the feel of Northern France is genuine. In the end, it is a truly pleasing film: funny, true to itself, fresh and nicely French (but not the part you are most used to seeing) is what you should expect.
Great film. Fantastic job with the subtitles
A really, really charming film. Charming being the word for movies with really simple plots, very down-to-earth stakes, and the ability to leave you with a big G-rated smile on your face afterwards. If you like cross-cultural fish-out-of-water movies such as My Big, Fat Greek Wedding, you're going to love this story of a postmaster who gets reassigned to the apparently misunderstood (in many senses) northern region of France, and how lives change accordingly. But what really impressed me the most were the subtitles. The English subtitles amazingly captured all the nuances of the convoluted wordplay that was obviously happening on screen. This becomes an even more impressive feat when you consider that much of the verbal fun of the movie comes from the various misunderstandings between the French-speaking lead character and the folks who speak in the northern provincial "Schticks" dialect. Because of this added layer of complexity, I realized that capturing these dynamics cannot be the product of any ordinary clerical translation job. And it turns out I was right. I later read that the director, Dany Boon, actually took an active role in ensuring that all the subtitles for the different languages properly and lovingly reflected the nuances and intent of the on screen banter. With truly impressive results. So kudos to Boon for paying attention to this particular detail. Oftentimes, foreign audiences miss out on much of the seeming in-jokes that movies play for their local audiences. "Schticks" made it a point to share its world with everyone else. Great job.
France is much more than just Paris!
This movie is easily the best French film that has come out in the last years. It is an excellent comedy with the two great actors Dany Boon and Kad Merad but the movie has also its philosophical, dramatical and sad parts. This movie is extremely funny, it is really difficult to make me laugh but this film made me laugh really hard several times. The best examples are when the postman and his director are having some drinks with half of the town while they deliver the letters or the scenes in the old mining town of Bergues, This movie is extremely touching and emotional. When the excellent Kad Merad tells his new partners and friends about his lies and mistakes, you feel really sad and ashamed for him. The movie's finale is also very emotional and a perfect and really philosophical conclusion. But the real star of the movie is the whole region, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where this movie is settled. This film presents strange and funny accents of the Sticks, their historical and charming towns, their way of living and thinking, their relation to the other parts of France and the clichés and prejudices about both sides. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais is more than just a part of France, it is a country within a country and a culture within a culture. I have been in this region for some weeks during an exchange program and I can tell that those people living there are mostly open-minded, very sympathetic and have many reasons to be proud of their region. I really like this movie as it reminds me of a few very positive and unforgettable memories. And I like the movie because it is different and finally a French film that doesn't present us Paris over and over again. The France is way more than just Paris and there are many beautiful and unique regions and people to discover and this successful and charming movie shows this to all the people out there. For everyone that is interested in a touching, emotional and simply profound comedy movie or anyone that likes foreign cultures and lifestyles, this unique movie is an absolute masterpiece. I hope that other French regions will follow this example and make similar movies in the future and take the focus off Paris a little bit.
A movie everyone can love.
I saw this movie in Lille, France, two weeks after the premiere, and the movie theaters were full. Everyone wanted to see it. (After two weeks, 15 million viewers. That's a lot.) Even though they sometimes spoke Ch'ti it was quite easy to understand, and many parts would have been funny in any language. I really recommend everyone to see it, no matter if you speak French or not. Many of the jokes with words (jeu de mots) are only comprehensible if you speak French, but it's still great. The point with the movie isn't just the language, another aspect is the prejudices the Southerns have about the Northerns. Which can be found in many more countries than France. I really think that it's a movie everyone can find something to like about. Maybe the French over-hyped it, but it's still a superb movie.
Should please French Canadians & Chti' Vee Wonder !!
This film, which should be a big success amongst the québecois and other French-speaking Canadians for reasons I will explain later, came out recently here in France and is having pretty substantial success. The plot : basically, a manager of the Post Office in Salon de Provence, France is trying to obtain a transfer to the Riviera in order to satisfy his neurotic and depressive wife who wants to live near the sea. Just when he thinks he's clinched an opening in Sanary-sur-Mer, he learns that preference was given to a handicapped candidate. He then tries to pass off as handicapped, wheelchair and all, during an interview for another post in the same area. All goes well and the interviewer is convinced that he is handicapped and cannot walk when at the end of the interview he stands up to say goodbye and thereby gives himself away ! This is a pretext for a "blâme" or sanction, and the poor guy's punishment is to be transferred, for a period of two years, right to the other end of the country to Bergues, in the Nord department, not far from Lille. To someone from the far south of France, going to the north is like going to the north pole, and his wife's old uncle, brilliantly played by Michel Galabru, warns him about the dangers and sub zero temperatures of the north, so our friend leaves his wife in Salon and makes the journey himself, planning to return home every second weekend. The purpose of the film is in a lighthearted and satirical way is to introduce the spectator to life in the north of France and to have a bash at some of the stereotypes commonly held about this region. The film contains numerous linguistic jokes and references and non French speakers will have difficulty in appreciating the full force and effect of the plays on words. Chti'mi is a dialect spoken in the north of France which tends to muddle c's and ch's, use mi and ti to mean me and you, braire (bray) to mean moan or complain as well as frequent usage of the word "biroute" which elsewhere in France is used for something more crude as well as lavish helpings of the word "quoi" (what, eh ! )pronounced as it if were "quow". I can see the film having enormous success in the French-speaking area of Canada as the Chti accent is not dissimilar to that used by the québecois and I feel intuitively that the latter will relish in it. Director Dany Boon is actually a Chti, or northerner, himself in real life and as well as directing actually plays the part of one of the Bergues post office employees and using his chti accent to excellent effect. His mother in the film is played by singer Line Renaud ( which IMDb lists as being born in Nieppe in Department 59 Nord so she may well be a chti herself ! ! )These northerners are painted as high livers, « bons vivants » over indulging in fatty foods and alcohol, very different from the south but little by little, our new manager gets used to this way of life, although the picture he paints to his wife in the south is much blacker than the reality. Eventually she joins him, is initially shocked but ends up enjoying herself too. Plot is not so important in the film, more important is the culture shock and interaction between the players. I have lived for several months in the north of France and the people there are indeed hearty, sincere and friendly, far more so than those in the south of the country who make more noise but are generally shallower as far as friendship goes. I also was lucky enough to have made a guided tour of Bergues about ten years ago, and found it a truly delightful place, surrounded by old fortifications. To resume, I really enjoyed the film and will willingly purchase the DVD when it is issued.