GET OUT YOUR HANDKERCHIEFS

France, 1978, 108 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Carole Laure, Michel Serrault.
Directed by Bertrand Blier.

Oscar-winner for the best foreign film of 1978. It was written and directed by Bertrand Blier who made the anarchistic and crude Going Places. The stars of this latter film are also in this one: Patrick Dewaere and Gerard Depardieu. Jeanne Moreau appeared in the former film. The heroine in this one is the attractive Carol Laure.

The sentimental title has echoes of Love Story as does the plot. However, the film is played for black comedy and a stress on the unconventional to jolt our reactions with its irony. The film ends with an anarchistic black comic tone. In this way it in very Gallic and may not appeal to universal audiences. In its way it is quite clever in its ironic and unconventional touches.

1. An interesting and entertaining film? Its receiving the 1978 Oscar? Deservedly? Why?

2. A French- Belgian co-production - Gallic style? Behaviour, manner? Values? Its appeal outside a French-speaking audience?

3. Colour photography, glimpses of France, French society. differences in the strata of French society? Ordinary people, wealth? The musical score - especially the use of Mozart and Schubert?

4. The title and its seeming sentimentality - its irony?

5. The film's background of the love story genre? Its using the types of character, themes, incidents, situations? Its twist on these, its mockery? Audience expectations of sentimental love stories? Audience response to the unconventional ironies?

6. How unconventional was the film? Norms of society and behaviour that wore presupposed and then twisted? Audience sympathy for the characters and their behaviour? The clash between principles and intellectual understanding of these and a feeling response? Moral and amoral behaviour? Immoral behaviour? What attitudes did the film support, condone? The film to be seen an a black comedy? The characteristics of black humour and its satiric effect?

7. The immediate focus on Raoul? As a Frenchman, type, age, background, brash? The cafe sequence and his interaction with Solange? His love for her, his attitude towards her having another man? His choosing of Steven and engineering the meeting? His desire to do this and yet his reaction against it - his asking the passer-by in the street and adjudicate? His giving Stephen to Solange as a gift? His plans for their liaison and its effect? How credible was his motivation? The establishment of the menage a trois? The going on the camp and looking after the boys? The friendship with Stephen, the love for Solange and his permitting Stephen to love her? The importance of the young boy and his ill-treatment by the others? His running away and the chase? The importance of his devotion to Solange and her attacks, the treatment, the doctors, the visits to the hospital? How did he change in his friendship with Stephen, for example, the use of Mozart? The nature of friendship and being pals? The final plan for the kidnapping of the boy for Solange's sake? The execution of the kidnapping, the meal together, the discussion, the boy not wanting to go home? Their giving themselves up and the ironic prison term? What future did Raoul have?

8. The contrast with Stephen - his presence in the cafe, character, teaching, love of music, his being puzzled and being imposed on? His attitudes towards Solange, love for her, Impotence? The sequence in the bedroom with the long tracking shot and their interaction? The background of his showing her his books, explaining Mozart to her? His work at the camp. his friendship with Raoul? The humorous sequences together and his enjoyment of life? The treatment of the boy, the chase, the kidnapping, the prison sentence? His future?

9. Solange as an attractive girl? Her listlessness in the cafe, her inability to relate to people, her inability to laugh, her feats? her liaison with Raoul, her acceptance of Stephen? Her continued knitting? Was she intelligent or not? Her going on the camp with the men and her looking after the boys? Her care for the young boy, the liaison and its impact? The irony of the ailing heroine and the way this film treated her, her inability to love the macho heroes? Her devotion and fulfilment with a 13-year-old boy? Her continued need for him? The kidnapping. her becoming a servant in the household and her glamorous life there? How strong was the irony in such a presentation of a heroine?

10. The character of the neighbour who couldn't sleep, his being introduced to Mozart, going to concerts, his help with Solange and her fits, his helping with the questionnaire of the boy's parents, his infatuation with the boy's mother and their being left by the roadside after the accident and her amnesia?

11. The portrait of the boy, precocious, his comments on his high I.Q., his assessment of situations? The treatment of the boys in the dormitory? His running away, his house, his sexual curiosity with Solange, the sexual liaison? His return home, his attitude towards his parents - the humour of the sequence of the bus arriving back and the long chase through the streets with all involved? The final set-up with Solange in the household?

12. The portrait of the parents and the critique of the wealthy? The strike and the father concerned about the kidnapping of his son? The mother and her wanting a son, their sending him to boarding school, her reaction to the questionnaire, her rushing to her son and the accident - and her going off with the neighbour? The black humour at the expense of the wealthy classes?

13. The ironies of the ending and what the audience was left with? The outlines of conventional love story material and the way these were twisted and ironically presented? How anarchical?