Bloody Oranges review – bitter French comedy entertains but leaves a sour taste
Macron’s France gets tied to a chair in a basement and abused in this scabrous and gruesome state-of-the-nation black comedy from Jean-Christophe Meurisse. Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) are a conceited retired couple in deep denial about how much debt they’re in, but hoping to win big money by competing in a dance contest. They figure they are entitled to extra points for being older, and the ferocious opening scene shows the judges debating precisely this kind of liberal identity-politics issue.
The couple’s grown-up son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), is a lawyer who, along with a bleary spin doctor (Denis Podalydès), is advising a creepy and reactionary government minister (Christophe Paou) who is keen to cut welfare while engaging in personal tax fraud and gives pompous interviews about family values while attending secret sex parties. M le ministre is to get poetic justice at the hands of a strange, reclusive man (Fred Blin) who is to receive his own retribution from the only character in the film with any courage and human spirit: teenager Louise (Lilith Grasmug), who is nervous about going all the way for the first time with her boyfriend.
Meurisse flashes up a quotation from Gramsci some way into the movie: “The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” These people are indeed monsters, mostly – monsters of mediocrity – but their appearance looks like the death of both the new and old worlds.
It’s a strange film; it rattles fiercely along, but its relentless cynicism and nihilism leaves a sour taste and opinion may divide as to exactly how funny it is. Podalydès gives an entertainingly blase performance as the worldly image consultant, trying to seduce Alexandre over lunch.
• Bloody Oranges is released on 16 September in cinemas.