Mammuth (2010)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Lets just concentrate on one small matter The knowingness of the filmmakers is apparent with there choice of bike. At the time Serge would have been a biker this would have been an aspiration for a European working man that was possible of fulfilment. In his comatose state the world moved on and his icon becomes a forgotten relic as many of the Mammuths did. Out of touch he would be unaware that the bike has now become a cult and consequently recently accrued great value. I have also had my Sidcup moments and in a sort of way also been redeemed by art so I understand that sector of the film, although perhaps in this film is slightly unbalances the structure And then Yolande Moreau can make shaving an armpits so moving that I cried.

Perhaps if you're a devoté of what used to be called art-house films this movie might not seem so different to you. Otherwise, it is likely to strike the average mover-goer accustomed to average movies as very strange indeed. Much if the dialogue is delivered in a very dead-pan style. Some of the cinematography, however, is really both very original and very beautiful. These are not introspective characters. They sometimes aggravate us because they don't think about their situation and are constantly astounded by what happens. This leaves them the victim of government bureaucracies that are simply too complicated for them to understand. You are unlikely to identify with these characters. Often you wonder whether to take them as mocking caricatures or sympathetic portraits. Still, the movie almost always held me, which is more than I can say for many more "normal" movies.

First of all, you're not going to watch a typical French movie here. So don't get mistaken by the actors list (Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani...). Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern, the writers/directors, are mostly known from their characters in the TV show named "Groland", but their movies are less famous. If you never heard about "Aaltra", "Avida" or "Louise-Michel", then you'll probably encounter this kind of movie for the first time.This isn't a glamorous story with pretty people. The acting/dialogs feels quite real, with their silences and boring/silly situations. Most of the characters are a bit nuts or flawed. The rhythm is slow, but so is the main character, and it's hard not to get attached to him and his simplicity.This is the story of Serge, a somewhat depressed simple-minded butcher who's just retired and is asked to find old salary papers to get his full pension. For that, his wife, the strong character in their couple, sends him to take a trip on his old bike while leaving her at home. No need to say his trip won't exactly go as planned and he will mostly revisit his young adulthood while encountering a number of atypical people.

This is the unglamorous journey of an uneducated precarious worker driving thru France on his Mummuth bike to get the missing social security documents that will grant him his social rights to claim his pension. On this journey, he comes to terms with the death of his first love and finally acknowledges his love for his wife.Special guest stars appear throughout this outrageous road movie:for instance Isabelle Adjani who made an extraordinary come back with the French movie "the day of the skirt" (i'm unable to put French titles to French films here)The French directors are well-know for their rather satirical outlook on the world mainly thru the very popular daily TV show "Groland" on French private TV Canal+.It gives this epic road movie a genuine feeling of authenticity. It is somber and dark. It depicts the average low life people, the ones that no movies are made about. No one wants to see the miserable workers, the way they are, in a pathetic yet moving way. It is obviously a metaphor about today's society without its pretty face-lift, the supermarket cashier is not played by a glamorous JLO (Jennifer Lopez).This film will thus be repugnant to watch to the viewer that cannot stand actors without make up, fake body parts. Viewers who cannot stand to see the truth about the life of the ordinary workers, with a surreal twist should be advised not to watch the film.The film was shot in a rather bad quality which does not only show how poor they were (and incapable of raising the money for this awkward film for which Depardieu does not get a dime!) but also set the film in a genre : social realism. Throughout the film Depardieu is naked, without protection. What a great performer he is ! He does not care about his image being potentially undermined by this movie. He is truly pathetic which is exactly the feeling the directors want to bring out. That shitty life you live makes you pathetic but this is not only what the directors want us to see. Obviously - unless you're so blinded by Hollywood glamor - you cannot watch a truly weird and honest film about realities that are never featured on film. Ken Loach would never show his characters under such unkind light. That's why it is a necessity that films like this one continue to be shot. There is no glamor or dignity in leading miserable lives. So it is showed as it should be for an audience of people with a critical outlook on society who become nauseous after seeing yet another blockbuster made with beautiful perfect people evolving in a perfect plastic world.Extraordinary lines such as the dialog between Depardieu and the butcher at the supermarket where his wife works!Thanks to Depardieu for taking the part and making the movie possible. I pity those who cannot see how important this cinema is for the diversity of point of views, not only aesthetically but politically in the movie industry today.