AGE-C Teams Collaborate at University of Warwick for Study Day on French Screen Comedy

At the face of decline: Ageing as comedy in contemporary French cinema

On Saturday 14^th October, members of the French and English team of the AGE-C project gathered at the University of Warwick to attend the “French Screen Studies” and BAFTSS Study Day on “French Screen Comedy from the Coming of Sound to the SVOD era” organized by Mary Harrod (University of Warwick) and Ginette Vincendeau (King’s College London). A similar question was raised in Raphaëlle Moine’s paper and my own, dedicated to two recent trends of comedy in French contemporary cinema: is it really possible to laugh about ageing?

Raphaëlle’s presentation, entitled “Comedies of old old age: a counter-speech on ageing and dependency” dealt with a corpus of a dozen popular comedies dealing with characters and situations related to the fourth age released in French cinemas since 2010 such as “Retirement Home” (“Maison de retraite”, Thomas Gilou, 2022), “Tricky Old Dogs” (Les Vieux fourneaux, Christophe Duthuron, 2017) or “All Together” (“Et si on vivait tous ensemble?”, Stéphane Robelin, 2011). She explained that while this corpus was heterogeneous in terms of comedic style, several common trends could be observed. Contrary to dominant trends in French demography, those films all focus on wealthy characters and predominantly feature ageing male stars in leading roles. While they tend to euphemize the issues related to ageing and to promote a neo-liberal conception of ‘successful ageing’, they also explore the topic in a very different way than previous comedies on the subject. One first notable trait is their ambivalent focus on intergenerational relationships. They convincingly show ageing citizens as part of the social community, even if it means that they tend to shift narrative focus to younger protagonists and to revive old stereotypes like the ‘grumpy old man’ or the ‘wise ageing character’. Another interesting characteristic of those comedies is that their ageing heroes often display a real sense of agency, as they deal with their physical and mental frailties in clever and inventive ways. Thirdly, those films address what was often a taboo in previous films on the topic: the sexuality of seniors past the third age. Raphaëlle finally questioned the various strategies that those comedies used in order to address difficult topics that are seemingly impossible to laugh at: death, Alzheimer and retirement homes. Her presentation showed that despite their shortcomings, several of those comedies of the old old age successfully embodied a counter-speech against dominant representations of ageing, and especially to tragic depictions of decline found in auteur cinema.

My own paper, “The Has-Been Comedy: Comedies of Corniness and Melodrames of Ageing” explored a very different trend of comedies: a series of independently produced films dealing with the figure of the has-been, an ageing popular singer facing physical and professional decline who is (temporarily) brought back to life by their encounter with a younger character. I argued that while those films were identified by distributor and audiences alike as comedies, they in fact blurred lines between comedy, romcom, musical and melodrama. I argued that their generic ambivalence was key to their dealing with the paradox at their center: how to portray a character threatened by obsolescence without casting a shadow of ridicule on the ageing star playing them? I showed that while those films were characterized by common traits (the way they oppose everyday life and stage performance, the romantic or filial bonds built between the ageing and younger protagonist and the various displacements that characterize their relationships), they dosed comedy and melodrama and addressed the issue of ageing in various ways. Interestingly, in most of those films, age is neverexplicitly mentioned but signified through three displays of obsolescence: the disappearance of a popular culture derided as corny while kindling heartwarming nostalgia; the tragicomic confrontation of the characters to their present and past image; and the tragic threat of physical decline. Xavier Giannolli’s “I Did It My Way” (“Quand j’étais chanteur”, 2006) starring Gérard Depardieu, Bavo Defurne’s “Souvenir” (2016) with Isabelle Huppert and Grégory Magne and Stéphane Viard’s “Air de rien” (“L’Air de rien“, 2013) headlined by Michel Delpech, tend respectively to 1. emphasize the melodramatic aspect of its character’s inevitable decline at the expense of comedy 2. protect its star through irony and camp from her heroine’s demise or 3. use the ageing character as a mere cipher for the narrative arc of the younger protagonist. The notable exception in my corpus is Alex Lutz’s “Guy” (2018): as the 40 year-old comic star, disguised as an ageing pop legend, doesn’t need to shield himself from the suspicion of ageing or professional irrelevance, he is the only one to mine his character’s age and corniness for comedic effect while providing him with real agency and situating melodrama in the titular hero’s past mistakes rather than in his future decline.

Written by: Dr. Alexandre Moussa

Image credit: Retirement Home (Maison de retraite), directed by Thomas Gilou, produced by MyFamily, TF1 Film Production and Adams Family Production, 2022