La Grande Bouffe
by Marco Ferreri
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DVD details
Actor: Florence Giorgetti, Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo TognazziDirector: Marco Ferreri
Brand: Koch International
Cinematographer: Pasquale Rachini
Cinematographer: Mario Vulpiani
Composer: Philippe Sarde
Editor: Claudine Merlin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Koch Lorber Films
Product features:
- Four jaded European buddies decide to end their boring existence in a hilariously decadent orgy of wine, women and song.Running Time: 124 minutes Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN Rating: NR Age: 741952317999 UPC: 741952317999 Manufacturer No: KLF-DV-3179
DVD Reviews of La Grande Bouffe
DVD Review: FOOD FOR THOUGHT OR GLUTTONOUS DECADENCE?
Summary: 3 Stars
Gluttonous decadence is the apparent theme and story in Marco Ferreri's exceedingly black French comedy(?) of manners.
Often hard to find on DVD or even VHS, the notorious reputation this cult film has garnered is well-deserved. Feasting on this cinematic dish is an acquired taste, to put it mildly.
The story follows four wealthy, middle-aged on a weekend of fine food and profligate sex. These men have all the material goods they could want; they have achieved the success proscribed by their culture and now, disgusted by what they have become, they are intent on devouring the culture that has shaped them.
But, really, are you what you eat?
Some critics have argued that the heart of this exercise is a "satire of bourgeoisie apathy."
Whatever it is, this at first taste savory dish is loaded with wit, contempt and cynicism that leaves one with a bitter after-taste.
The four men -- pilot Marcello Mastrioanni, chef Ugo Tognazzi, TV producer Michel Piccoli and judge Phillipe Noiret -- exit their upper crust jobs and make their way to a rustic mansion in the Paris suburbs that the judge has inherited.
As the men unwind emotionally and physically, truckloads of food arrive: Massive quantities of meat - lamb, venison, whole pigs and an seemingly endless supply of fowl -- are unloaded.
Quickly, three prostitutes -- Danielle (Solange Blondeau), Anne (Florence Giorgetti) and Nicole (Michèle Alexandre), are hired as dessert. No, make that side dishes. And then they invite Andrea (Andrea Ferreol), a local school teacher on a field trip, to join them after her students go home. It is Andrea who most relishes the lengthy debauch and degustation.
The title of this French/Italian co-production does not translate well into English. It's not really "The Big Eat." In the UK it is known as "The Big Blow-Out." And that's a much more accurate rendition of the meaning of the title.
This film is one of those bold tales that does not flinch from going all the way with the premise. It's about nothing less than eating one's self to death. It is literally a final blow out.
Numerous sub-themes are tapped and western - especially Euro -- conventions skewered. The male chauvinism of the period is savagely mocked; the vapid pseudo intellectual tit-for-tat conversations are elaborated in witty parody. But it is the wallowing in the numbing sensual pleasures of food and sex that is the lasting metaphor. After the final fade out, there's no mistaking that this film is about life and death itself. If that is not clear, it is when a truck dumps a final load of meat in the yard of the mansion.
As the men snort, grunt and fart to their über-satiated demise, we cannot help but see them as pigs. If one is doomed to expire from meaningless indulgence, why not do it at the peak of orgasmic pleasure?
This film is not the sweet delicacy that it may seem at first taste. It is a scatological seduction with a grim moral denouement. This is art; offensive and intelligent. And it is much more than a culinary orgy, as some have called it.
I remember film critic Roger Ebert praised the film but also called it "decadent, self-loathing, cynical and frequently obscene."
"What about the turkey stuffing?" asks one of the men, "Life is stuffing!" is the reply.
Indeed. How sad a conclusion.
This NC-17 rated film reminds me Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover." Greenaway's sensory overload makes "La Grande Bouffe" look like a church picnic. But for me, it does not connect as viscerally to the central nervous system as "Bouffe." Greenway's film is more about filmmaking and Marco Ferreri's is about life not lived. And that is truly obscene.
More La Grande Bouffe reviews:
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Description of La Grande Bouffe
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film FestivalMarco Ferreri?s decadent and depraved masterpiece follows four friends (Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi) as they hole up in a Parisian villa with three prostitutes and a local schoolteacher (Andréa Ferréol) to eat themselves to death.
DVD EXTRA: Excerpt from the documentary ?Marco Ferreri: The Director Who Came from the Future?
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