L'africain

Most of the time, "L’Africain" is a delightful film. The storyline is thinbut the actors carry it with panache and the scenery is spectacular.Charlotte (Catherine Deneuve) flies to East-Africa in order to build atouristic center near the Lake Williams where the pygmys live. Here shemeets her husband Victor (Philippe Noiret), a devoted conservationist wholeft her three years ago to live in the jungle. Can you imagine hisenthusiasm when she arrives at the conclusion that the ideal place tobuiltthis holiday resort is his kitchen garden? A sacrilege in his eyes! Butevenhis good buddy, the british stewart who is always prepared to do him agoodturn quickly becomes a convert after Charlotte makes eyes at him andallowsher to explore the country. From then on, Charlotte and Victor have todealwith herds of elephants, villainous ivory smugglers and voraciouscrocodiles. They sail on the African Queen II and meet the pygmys atlast.

What I liked especially about this film apart from the performances wasthefact that it bears no similarity with the usual Hollywood products like"Outof Africa". This film is completely irreverent and offers an amusinglymalicious look at the remains of the colonial age long past gone, like thethreadbare elegance of the "Grand Hotel de Paris" where Victor, dressed inhis smoking, consumes his oysters. However, I have to add a warning: Thisfilm may hurt sensibilities. Don’t expect of a french film of 1983 toapplythe same standards of political correctness as a U.S. release of 2003. Thenatives in this film live in rusty iron-shacks, and when Deneuve complainsat one point that they are poor, Noiret replies: "Shall we put them insocial homes and feed them hamburgers?" Political incorrectness or gallowshumor? The language is salty at times: When Noiret falls in a torrentialriver after villains cut the ropes of a rope-bridge, Deneuve shouts:"I wasso afraid because of you. Why didn’t you make me a child?" However, if youcan do without political correctness for the duration of this film, youwillrather enjoy this comedy, if only for the sake of its two very funnystars.