Zai Zai Zai Zai | Semi-successful humor transplant

Fabrice does his shopping at the supermarket, but when it’s time to pay, he realizes that he doesn’t have his loyalty card. Taken into play by the security, he manages to escape… and becomes the biggest fugitive in France. An absurd comedy adapted from the comic strip of the same name by Fabcaro.

John Siag
The Press

Comic book lovers will remember the release (in 2016) of this deliciously absurd little album by Fabcaro, in which the cartoonist staged himself in a surreal scenario where he forgets his loyalty card and where, surrounded by security employees from his supermarket, he threatens an agent with a leek and flees.

An opportunity for him to denounce this symbol of our consumer society and its paranoid side, and to criticize the role of the media, which get carried away in this innocuous affair…

The film adaptation by François Desagnat and Jean-Luc Gaget was a risky bet. Firstly because Fabcaro’s quirky humor goes very well in an album (given the distance that allows you to capture the second level of reading). In the realistic world of cinema, it can give the impression of a somewhat stupid comedy. Which happens in several scenes, unfortunately.

The duo wanted to stay faithful to the comics, of course, but on the screen, some lines ring false. The ones that have been added aren’t always the most uplifting either. The police bothered because they do not speak Lozère? Really ?

Despite everything, Desagnat manages to extract a few pearls from this Kafkaesque comedy in which Fabrice (Jean-Paul Rouve) – here an actor in comedies rather than a cartoonist – flees (yes, to Lozère) and is spat out of his lift because he does not know the words of Whistle on the hillby Joe Dassin (hence the title of the film).

Forgetting his loyalty card will divide the film community, a fringe of which will sing a collective piece (Band-Aid style) as a form of support (thank you, Benjamin Biolay!). A film inspired by the events is even shot by two actors (played by Julie Gayet and Ramzy Bédia), guided by Fabrice’s wife, Fabienne (Julie Depardieu). Good flashes.

Director François Desagnat even tends towards dystopia – everyone drives the same car (an orange Renault Captur), dissent is not tolerated and the media and social networks turn things upside down, regardless of the facts. In short, there are strong visual elements and, above all, an excellent cast, which manages to make us forget (a little) the failures of the scenario where many segments simply seem “too big” to us.

Comedy

Zai Zai Zai Zai

Francois Desagnat

With Jean-Paul Rouve, Julie Depardieu, Ramzy Bédia, Julie Gayet

1 h 22 Indoors

6/10