FRENCH TWIST (47)

Directed by: Josiane Balasko

Starring: Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko, Alain Chabat

The Pitch: The classic triangle - husband, wife and the "other woman" ; except that the latter is a lesbian.

Theo Sez: Of the Revolution's three principles, "equality" seems to be the one this rambling French farce takes most to heart : it rejects both homophobia and political correctness, refusing to condemn any of the parties in its amusingly twisted triangle - unsurprisingly so in the case of Balasko's butch lesbian (the plot could hardly work if she was made dislikeable) but very bravely when it comes to her rival for Abril's affections, the homophobic husband played by Chabat as a chauvinist jerk who at one point falls, appropriately enough, into a pig trough (yet who is, by the end, almost the hero of the piece - it's his feelings that we end on). The only thing it seems to despise are double standards, things like men joking blithely about lesbians but recoiling in disgust when women make similar jokes about gays ; it's a spirit of equanimity, accepting everyone's sexuality without fuss - a nice change from hysterical films like THE BIRDCAGE, which made a huge production out of the same small point (that gay and straight relationships have a lot in common) which gets made here quickly in an early scene, before the film moves on. On the other hand, as it winds its way through an ever-increasing number of French Twists, you may begin to long for THE BIRDCAGE and its tight plotting : like the Bertrand Blier comedies it often resembles - stuff like the 1986 TENUE DE SOIREE - it doesn't know where to stop. Has its moments though.