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French Twist

French Twist

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting Idea But......
Review: .....Balasko tries to do too much in this romantic comedy drama about a married Spanish woman who gets herself involved in a lesbian affair partly to spite her unfaithful husband and partly because she genuinly finds herself developing amourous feelings for the female van driver.

It certainly is entertaining and there are lots of interesting twists but I somehow feel that if Balasko didn't do practically everything in this film it would have a more even pace and more could be done with it; her commitments to writing, directing and acting in this film make the energy seem sporadic throughout the whole movie and the unclear ending just annoyed me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very, very humorous view of straight and gay life in France
Review: A happily married, very straight wife explores the frustrations and loving side of married life after her husband strays and is caught in one of many extra-marital affairs. We follow the woman from straight and married to lesbian and married to bi-sexual and married to menage-a-trois and married... then the real French Twist... to gay and married - an extremely funny surprise ending! This very, very funny look at life and the sexual attractions of a married couple in France had me laughing out loud, crying, rolling on the floor and sighing at the touching humanity on the screen. I loved it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ridiculous Lesbian Fantasy
Review: Anyone who has ever read lesbian erotica will recognize some of the plot elements of this silly movie. The naive, ultrafemme, housewife, who slaves all day for a selfish, uncaring, philadering husband, meets a wonderful, butch lesbian and within a short while (a couple of hours?)is seduced by her charms. Rescuing "straight" women from unhappy marriages is a huge theme of lesbian erotica. It's a rather unbelievable premise, and this movie makes it seem even more implausible. I just did not believe that the homely, overweight, and repulsive Marijo could be irresistable to the gorgeous Loli. It wasn't until I discovered that the director had cast herself in the role of Marijo did I understand- if you were in the position to decide who gets to do love scenes with Victoria Abril would you take one for yourself? Obviously, Josiane Balasko is a smart woman. (It sort of reminded me of a "Seinfield" episode- you know the ones in which ugly, dorky Jerry and ugly, dorky George somehow always manage to get dates with impossibly beautiful women. It's that implausible!)

Overall, this move had some laughs, but its premise was absurd and by the end of the film I detested everyone of these characters. They were just so selfish! As Helen Lovejoy says: "Will someone please think of the children!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: non-american(=sappy/conventional) ending
Review: He cheats, he does whatever he wants -takes his wife for granted; etc.. etc.. He's bigotted and prejudiced; and she gets him back in the worst way possible - she switches preferences. I thought it was going to be a horribly boring french (=deep, meaningful or ridiculous) movie about relationships; instead I couldn't help but laugh and laugh. It's a very funny movie. The housewife is pretty much desperate for some love and attention and picks up whatever comes along - what happens to be a lesbian van driver. They go through all the "lesbian stereotypes" and "macho male" reactions with humor and insightfulness. I think they decided to use specific stereotypes (butch lesbians, pig-headed homophobic husbands) in order to make their point in the movie. The ending is just so typically "european" - non-conventional, and most of all REAL and normally-CRAZY. Fresh. The dialog is very good, it helps to know some french as they of course don't translate everything perfectly or thoroughly in the subtitles.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Depressing
Review: I disliked the movie. It has some funny parts, but most of the movie shows a family being ripped apart and torn into shreds.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Even a cinnamon twist is not this good!
Review: I had no idea what I was getting into when I got this movie. As a huge foreign film buff there I was taking a gander at this movie and realizing the script was totally hilarious.

Basically it focuses on this married couple who have two children, a French family. And of course, the man, not wanting to offend all of the women he's ever met, sleeps with them all. (Side note, it is actually a compliment when men make passes in France, it is offensive to not do it, it means the female is not worth trying with; interesting huh?)

Anyway, hubby cheats, the devoted wife finds that a dyke passerby can fix things, be there for her, and even have dinner.

A steamy romance ensues with the wife and her new woman and the cheating hubby does not take it to well.

You will laugh your ass off in this movie! I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say, I bet the script writer has had a very interesting marriage!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Barrel of (Laughs)?
Review: I remember this film mainly as a comedy, but when I went to watch it again I was amazed by the serious issues it raised. Genre pieces today seem to stay comfortably in their own domain. Comedy is usually nothing but funny and action films are usually nothing but skilful computer effects. There is a tremendous amount of crying going on in this film that isn't comic, but a real portrayal of the complex arrangement of desire and its negative effects. This is especially so because of the children involved and you have to wonder that if it were real life would it all end so happily. In any case, I find myself now remembering it as funny again because any situation where a pig-headed man gets humiliated will always be funny. Victoria Abril is simply sexy and the juxtaposition of her with the charismatic Josiane Balasko is simply a hoot. It is also good to see issues of homosexuality portrayed in a slightly more humorous manner than hard dramas that end in tragedy and doesn't compromise the character's to a mere comedy of campness at the same time. It is a very entertaining film that you will enjoy though you may not remember the emotional impact it had on you correctly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A surprisingly good and funny film...
Review: I've seen this film a few times now. Each time I see it, I show it to a friend who hasn't seen it. They all loved it. Makes me like it that much more when I see them enjoying it.

"French Twist" is about a cheating husband has to deal with the fact that his neglected wife has found another love interest... a woman. That he cheats on his wife on a regular basis is not the issue, to him. His ego and pride being stepped on by the whole situation is the problem and it makes for some very funny material.

The three main characters (Josiane Balasko, Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat) work extremely well together. Just bouncing lines off one another and interacting beautifully. Just when it looks like all will work out another element is added to stir the fire.

The film was written and directed by Balasko who also stars as the "other" woman who's looking for love and destroying a home. Or is she? Chabat is amazingly funny as the philandering husband and Abril is also very good and quite beautiful as the passionate, yet somewhat confused wife.

Check it out for yourself. Don't let the subtitles hold you back. It doesn't take away from the film at all. Get ready to laugh.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A surprisingly good and funny film...
Review: I've seen this film a few times now. Each time I see it, I show it to a friend who hasn't seen it. They all loved it. Makes me like it that much more when I see them enjoying it.

"French Twist" is about a cheating husband has to deal with the fact that his neglected wife has found another love interest... a woman. That he cheats on his wife on a regular basis is not the issue, to him. His ego and pride being stepped on by the whole situation is the problem and it makes for some very funny material.

The three main characters (Josiane Balasko, Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat) work extremely well together. Just bouncing lines off one another and interacting beautifully. Just when it looks like all will work out another element is added to stir the fire.

The film was written and directed by Balasko who also stars as the "other" woman who's looking for love and destroying a home. Or is she? Chabat is amazingly funny as the philandering husband and Abril is also very good and quite beautiful as the passionate, yet somewhat confused wife.

Check it out for yourself. Don't let the subtitles hold you back. It doesn't take away from the film at all. Get ready to laugh.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A witty and observant comedy.
Review: Loli, played by Victoria Abril, has given up a promising career as a dancer to become the wife of a womanising estate agent; and though she knows of one woman he has had an affair with and has forgiven him, she knows nothing about any of the others - not even her own baby-sitter! No. Her main complaint against him is not his promiscuity but that he takes her for granted and shows her little affection. So, when a butch lesbian, played by Josiane Balasko, appears on the scene, stopping at the house to ask for water for her van's radiator, she is a ripe fruit waiting to be picked. And this kind, mature, worldly-wise lesbian is an expert in the art of seduction.

On an evening out together, the husband, played by Alain Chabat, already annoyed at the lesbian's intrusion into his home with his wife's encouragement, is driven into a blind fury when he discovers, on bending down to retrieve a cigarette from under the table, the lesbian's hand half way up his wife's thigh, and then sees them dancing together very intimately. From this follow many scenes of shouting and screaming, jealousy and rage. You feel for the husband's usurpation and his humiliation at being rejected for a lesbian - though you rejoice at his come-uppance - and you feel for the wife who deserves the affection she has been so long denied, and you feel for the lesbian with a loving heart who wants only to make the wife happy - though others may condemn her for destroying a relatively happy marriage. The husband hates her so much and is so desperate to get rid of her that he is willing to do anything, and in the end reluctantly accepts her condition for leaving; that he should go to bed with her and give her a baby.

But despite all the passion and jealousy, this is a light comedy and not a heavy drama, and you have the feeling all along that everything will work out well in the end. And it does. The moral of the story, affirmed at the end, is that the only things that matter are love, tenderness and affection and if we get those the source's sexual gender is immaterial; we are all bisexual.

This is a bright, witty and observant comedy, well-acted, particularly by Victoria Abril, and constantly entertaining.


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