Le long-métrage, traitant du racisme et du mariage mixte, raconte l’histoire d’un couple de bourgeois catholiques, incarné par Christian Clavier et Chantal Lauby, qui voit ses convictions mises à mal lorsque trois de ses quatre filles se marient l’une après l’autre avec des hommes d’origines et de confessions diverses et que la quatrième, en qui ses parents fondent leurs espoirs, tombe amoureuse d’un catholique d’origine ivoirienne.
Lors de sa sortie en salles, Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu ? obtient un bon accueil de la part des critiques et reste quatre semaines consécutives en tête du box-office français avec 6,7 millions d’entrées, tout en restant vingt-trois semaines dans le top 20 hebdomadaire, dont vingt dans le top 10, parvenant à totaliser 12,2 millions d’entrées.
Il est le plus grand succès au box-office français de l’année 2014 et le sixième plus gros succès français dans l’histoire de son box-office.
‘Racist’ French cinema hit ‘too politically incorrect’ for UK and US audiences
Popular French film about Catholic parents whose daughters marry men of other religions will not reach UK as viewers “would never allow themselves to laugh at blacks, Jews or Asians”
British and American cinema-goers will not get to see a hugely popular French comedy because it has been rejected by film distributors who deem it politically incorrect and possibly racist.
“Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu?” (Serial (Bad) Weddings) tells the tale of two stuffy, white, Catholic parents whose daughters horrify them by marrying men of other religions and ethnic backgrounds.
Three are already wed – to an Arab Muslim, a north African Jew, and a Chinese man – and Maman and Papa place all their hope in their youngest daughter, only to discover that she has promised herself to a man from Ivory Coast.
The movie has been seen by more than 12 million French but will not make it across the water because, according to the production company behind it, English-speaking audiences “would never allow themselves these days to laugh at blacks, Jews or Asians.”
“The people [in US and UK distribution companies] we spoke to found it politically incorrect,” Sabine Chemaly of TFI International told Le Point magazine.
The film got mostly rave reviews in France, with one critic praising it as a “sort of hymn to the melting pot of France, an efficient comedy that uses self-derision to promote multicultural tolerance”.
The film’s message appears to be that even if the French are sometimes a little racist, common sense will prevail and everyone can in the end get along.
The director, Philippe de Chauveron, said his film was about “deflating” the prejudices peddled by the anti-immigrant Front National party, whose support has been growing rapidly in France in recent years.
But the few reviews that have appeared in the English-language film trade press were negative.
“The majority of the jokes are extremely heavy-handed — the Jew calls the Arab “Arafat” and then is karate-chopped by the Asian,” said the Hollywood Reporter, while Variety magazine noted that the film had been criticised for “perpetuating racist stereotypes and feeding into France’s ambient xenophobia”.
The 2011 French film, The Intouchables, touched upon similar topics as Serial (Bad) Weddings and grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, but it’s hard to see Weddings honeymooning far outside the usual Francophone hotspots,” added the Hollywood Reporter.
Trois métèques plus un noir c’est Fukushima !
Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu ?
par Philippe de Chauveron
(2014)
Le long-métrage, traitant du racisme et du mariage mixte, raconte l’histoire d’un couple de bourgeois catholiques, incarné par Christian Clavier et Chantal Lauby, qui voit ses convictions mises à mal lorsque trois de ses quatre filles se marient l’une après l’autre avec des hommes d’origines et de confessions diverses et que la quatrième, en qui ses parents fondent leurs espoirs, tombe amoureuse d’un catholique d’origine ivoirienne.
Lors de sa sortie en salles, Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu ? obtient un bon accueil de la part des critiques et reste quatre semaines consécutives en tête du box-office français avec 6,7 millions d’entrées, tout en restant vingt-trois semaines dans le top 20 hebdomadaire, dont vingt dans le top 10, parvenant à totaliser 12,2 millions d’entrées.
Il est le plus grand succès au box-office français de l’année 2014 et le sixième plus gros succès français dans l’histoire de son box-office.
‘Racist’ French cinema hit ‘too politically incorrect’ for UK and US audiences
Popular French film about Catholic parents whose daughters marry men of other religions will not reach UK as viewers “would never allow themselves to laugh at blacks, Jews or Asians”
by Rory Mulholland
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11158603/Racist-French-cinema-hit-too-politically-incorrect-for-UK-and-US-audiences.html
British and American cinema-goers will not get to see a hugely popular French comedy because it has been rejected by film distributors who deem it politically incorrect and possibly racist.
“Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu?” (Serial (Bad) Weddings) tells the tale of two stuffy, white, Catholic parents whose daughters horrify them by marrying men of other religions and ethnic backgrounds.
Three are already wed – to an Arab Muslim, a north African Jew, and a Chinese man – and Maman and Papa place all their hope in their youngest daughter, only to discover that she has promised herself to a man from Ivory Coast.
The movie has been seen by more than 12 million French but will not make it across the water because, according to the production company behind it, English-speaking audiences “would never allow themselves these days to laugh at blacks, Jews or Asians.”
“The people [in US and UK distribution companies] we spoke to found it politically incorrect,” Sabine Chemaly of TFI International told Le Point magazine.
The film got mostly rave reviews in France, with one critic praising it as a “sort of hymn to the melting pot of France, an efficient comedy that uses self-derision to promote multicultural tolerance”.
The film’s message appears to be that even if the French are sometimes a little racist, common sense will prevail and everyone can in the end get along.
The director, Philippe de Chauveron, said his film was about “deflating” the prejudices peddled by the anti-immigrant Front National party, whose support has been growing rapidly in France in recent years.
But the few reviews that have appeared in the English-language film trade press were negative.
“The majority of the jokes are extremely heavy-handed — the Jew calls the Arab “Arafat” and then is karate-chopped by the Asian,” said the Hollywood Reporter, while Variety magazine noted that the film had been criticised for “perpetuating racist stereotypes and feeding into France’s ambient xenophobia”.
The 2011 French film, The Intouchables, touched upon similar topics as Serial (Bad) Weddings and grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, but it’s hard to see Weddings honeymooning far outside the usual Francophone hotspots,” added the Hollywood Reporter.
(sk)
フランスでみんなが面白いと思った映画を、海峡の反対側のイギリスではあまり喜ばれない。そんな現実がある。
フランス人のなかにもイギリス的な人はいるし、イギリス人のなかにもフランス的な人はいる。でも大多数のフランス人はこの映画を面白いと思い、大多数のイギリス人はそれが上映されることにすら反感を持つという。
なにが人にそう思わせるのだろう。教育だろうか、メディアだろうか。個人は社会に影響されやすく、個人の異なる意見は社会のなかではあまり大きな意味を持たないのだということを、改めて感じた。