NEWS FROM PLANET MARS


France, 2016, 101 minutes, Colour
François Damiens, Vincent Macaigne, Veerie Baetens, Michel Aumont.
Directed by Dominik Moll.

News From Planet Mars is a quirky entertainment – French and Belgian style. The film starts evocatively with a space launch and an astronaut floating in space above the city lights. But then he wakes up and it is Philippe, the central character of this film, François Damiens (who played, convincingly, the hearing-impaired father in The Belier Family).

Philippe is the computer expert, reliable and thorough at work, and asked to supervise a rather manic genius, Jerome, played with absolutely irritating conviction by Vincent Macaigne. Not that Philippe does not have other problems. He is separated from his wife, a television correspondent for political European Union conferences. She suddenly lands her children on Philippe. The son is very slow at school and becoming a campaigning vegan, and the daughter is absolutely obsessed with studies, some of which are done with her boyfriend.

We get a glimpse of a nice Philippe’s walking out one night and he accosts a salad man with his dog who will not scoop up his dog poop from the footpath. Philippe encounter him again later when walking his sister’s poodle and has an alternate solution to the scoop!

Philippe’s surname is Mars and the planets do not seem to be an alignment.

Jerome has a crisis in the office and brandishes his hatchet that he carries for crises, throwing it across the room and actually cutting off Philippe’s year. So far, so bad. It can only get worse – and does.

Jerome gets out of a mental institution and turns up outside Philippe’s window asking to come in – and, while claims he will leave, of course, he does not, imposing himself in the house, having class discussions with the son and endorsing his vegan approach, getting the daughter to collaborate (with cash) when he brings his girlfriend from the institution, Chloe, and puts pressure on Philippe to enable her to stay the night. As might be imagined, a lot of potential comedy which is followed through.

Chloe is a protester, especially against the artificial cultivation of animals and their slaughter – which leads to an attempt on a farm, with explosives, Jerome and Chloe driven by another eccentric character in the apartment block, a former chauffeur to French President Giscard De’staing. Philippe and the children save the day. Not entirely.

Part of the nice fantasy is that Philippe’s parents, elderly then deceased, keep appearing to Philippe, giving advice – with the touch of the guardian angel, something which is useful at the end.

Philippe is likeable, Jerome too in his way, and there are lots, of quirkily humorous touches – especially when the son urges his mother to say cucumber in one of her television reports, even Philippe willing her to say cucumber at the end.

1. A quirky film? French and Belgian collaboration and humour?

2. The French cities, apartments and apartment blocks, streets, offices, hospital? The countryside on the road to Sedan? The musical score?

3. The title, application of extraterrestrial activity? The touch of the surreal? The introduction to the film, the documentary newsreel, astronauts, the spacecraft, space, the astronaut floating over the city lights? The recurring image? Philippe as an astronaut? And his own planet, Mars?

4. Philippe as the centre of the film, ordinary man, turning 49, the divorce from Myriam, his relationship with his two children, at work, the boss relying on him, his having to supervise Jerome and cope with his eccentricities? Jerome and his cleaver, letting loose, attacking the boss, smashing everything, hurling the cleaver, cutting off Philippe’’s ear? His wife, delivering the kids as she went off to her television reporter work? His walk, the man with the dog, the discussion about the poop, the argument about doing the right thing? Later seeing the man again? And his sisters dog pooping? Watching his wife on television – and their son asking her to say cucumber? His son, limited intelligence, revising the massacre of St Bartholomew – and thinking professionals instead of Protestants? His not wanting to dissect the frogs, his choice to be vegetarian, resisting the bacon? Sarah, 17, perpetual study, working with Clement? Their father wanting him them to watch the Marx Bros but letting them go? His son’s text from Roxanne, the crudity, aged 12, Philippe ringing the principal, the boss coming in when he was talking to the principal – ambiguity? Roxanne’s father later punching him?

5. Philippe, a nice man, a decent man, easily imposed on, the reappearance of his parents (after the exaggerations in their daughter’s portraits of them, genitals…)? The parents as benign, talking to Philippe, like guardians? The stopping the countdown for the explosion?

6. Jerome, at work, eccentric, wanting children with the television presenter, going berserk? In the street, escaping from the institution, having met Chloe and attracted to her? Philippe letting him up, letting him stay, Jerome not leaving, working on his studies with the son, his speech on Progress – and the speech and the audiovisuals? The issue of the death of the frogs compared to the Holocaust? Stealing all the frogs from school? His cooking with the son for Chloe, the mess in the house? Paying Sarah €100 to say she was vegetarian?

7. Philippe’s sister, her art, the portraits, the opening, the parents and the genitals and Philippe’s comment? changing her name to Xanae? The dog, leaving it with Philippe, his walking it, pooping, his exasperation and throwing it in the river?

8. Chloe, from the institution, not wanting to be touched, the story of her biting the woman wearing the fur, her causes, vegetarian, against the killing of animals? Wanting a shower, Jerome saying she could? His asking Philippe to give up his room? Jerome continually imposing?

9. The tough brothers, delivering the explosives, the plan for sabotage, the son involved, the explosives under the bed? The old man downstairs, friendship with Philippe, chauffeur to Giscard, always talking about him, losing his licence, but taking the saboteurs?

10. Sarah, Clement dropping her, Philippe rescuing her, the verbal attack on the boy’s father? The decision to drive to Sedan, the GPS, catching up?

11. Chloe, change of heart, the kiss, the crash? The countdown for the bomb, Philippe rescuing the frogs? The explosions being fireworks?

12. Philippe saved – and his comment to Chloe about seeing him as a gorilla in a cage, his acknowledgement he needed to be free, giving up his job, uncertain as to the future?

13. Jerome and Chloe, the farewell, going to Belgium? (And Myriam saying cucumber in her television report, Philippe urging her on?)