A Parisian family, cramped in their apartment, moves to the countryside. However, their dream turns into a nightmare when they learn that their garden also serves as a hunting ground.
This very French comedy makes you laugh, even if it doesn’t fly high. Directors Antonin Fourlon and Frédéric Forestier (The ball, Asterix at the Olympic Games) rely on the comical situations of the contrast between the provincials of the countryside and the Parisians, the latter always being perceived as very arrogant.
Preserveis the story of a Parisian couple and their two young children who leave the noisy capital to settle in the quiet countryside. The little family thinks they have finally found their dream home, but now the hunters are making their life difficult, because they are using their garden as a hunting ground. The Parisians are not going to let this happen, and neither are the hunters!
We are obviously treated to a festival of clichés; the Parisians are urbanites in ecstasy before nature and discover chickens and wild boars, while the village hunters are a little gruff and clumsy. One of them, played by the excellent Didier Bourdon (The bet, The three brothers), is a great hunting enthusiast to the point that he neglects his wife. He is simply irresistible.
The parents, played by actors Camille Lou and Hakim Jemili, are also very good. Thierry Lhermitte, in a supporting role, makes a very notable passage, saying in particular: “Your problem is that you left the crazy people of Paris for the crazy people of the countryside!” Indeed, but these “crazy people” are frankly funny and endearing, even if a little too caricatured.
We would have liked a little more subtlety and funnier dialogues, but we make up for it in the comedy of the situations. We laugh when we see the village shopkeepers raise their prices when the Parisians arrive, we also laugh during a completely crazy hunting banquet scene where alcohol flows freely, there is dancing and singing to the tunes of the popular Patrick Sébastien, and we laugh even more when the hunters find themselves on a cycle path…
Preserve is a comedy that makes us laugh despite the clichés and good feelings.
Indoors
Comedy
Preserve
Antonin Fourlon and Frédéric Forestier
With Didier Bourdon, Camille Lou, Hakim Jemili, Thierry Lhermitte
1 h 41