The Name of the People

You think a film dealing with topics such as genocide, child abuse, the deportation of Jews in the Third Reich or the current migration problem in France has to be depressing and gloomy? The Name of the People, Michel Leclerc's multi-award-winning comedy, impressively and entertainingly proves otherwise.

Attractive Bahia (Sara Forestier) knows the effect she has on men. And she uses that purposefully to lead men of a more right-wing political bent down the right - read: left - path of virtue. For Bahia, sex is a political weapon that can work wonders. But when she meets the reserved Arthur (Jacques Gamblin), she realizes that some people can't be pigeonholed so easily. For the first time, she meets a man she can seduce by getting dressed, not undressed. And although they are completely different characters, an unusual relationship develops between the two of them that slowly coaxes Arthur out of his shell. Bahia's idealism not only forces him to rethink his own outlook on life. He also has to come to terms with the history of his family, which his parents have always successfully kept quiet about. But such changes are not without consequences.

Inspired by his own partner Baya Kasmi, who not only worked on the screenplay but was also the inspiration for the character of Bahia, and by Woody Allen's early work (most notably The Urban Neurotic), Michel Leclerc has created a highly unconventional, intelligent comedy with The Name of the People. The film is bursting with ideas that are both hilarious and charming, and when put together they create a story that is difficult to summarize. The best proof for this is the trailer of the movie, which doesn't do justice to the actual content and leads the viewer to expect a rather shallow comedy. And The Name of the People really isn't that.

Whether it's Arthur always seeing his father as an older man even in his memories because he just can't picture him as a young guy, Bahia's inability to multi-task culminating in a very embarrassing subway ride, or her bursting into tears after going to the ballot box, because she had to vote for Chirac, whether Arthur keeps having conversations with his young self, or whether Bahia has to vent in a very special way during dinner with Arthur's parents in the kitchen, so as not to bring up the taboo subject of Arthur's mother's Jewish past. These and the many other set pieces borrowed in part from Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi's own family history make The Name of the People a very special film experience.

Admittedly, every now and then the laugh may catch in your throat. But Leclerc always finds the right tone, taking back the film's underlying comedic tone almost unnoticed in the dramatic moments and finding almost poetic ways to bring extremely sad or terrible memories to the screen. And it is in this that the film's very great strength lies. Even if its content is extremely heavy at times, the delivery is always light and extremely positive. The Name of the People is a very big yes to life, the beauty of which can only reveal itself when you manage to see past differences, when you are at peace with yourself and your past and don't try to change other people in a cramped way.

With all the enthusiasm for the content and its visual realization, a word must also be said about the wonderful actors. The film clearly belongs to Sara Forestier, who was last seen in Gainsbourg as France Gall. Forestier plays the idealistic, free-spirited, and at times very kooky Bahia in such a charming and engaging way that the audience's sympathies fall naturally to her. Jacques Gamblin (C`est la vie) embodies no less sympathetically the exact opposite of Bahia. Raised in a family that prefers to talk about the arrangement of letters on the typewriter keyboard or the latest technical achievements rather than about their own past or even feelings, Arthur has developed into a shy recluse who is better at dealing with dead birds than with living women. As he slowly becomes infected by Bahia's free spirit, always falling back into his old rut, Gamblin plays with endearing restraint. The two make a wonderful couple, believable every second despite their glaring differences. The wonderfully original love story of these two characters alone makes The Name of People worth watching!

A film that refuses to be pigeonholed, that makes the viewer laugh out loud and cry quietly, that charms with its wonderful leads and delights with intelligent wit, all of this makes The Name of People one of the most pleasant program cinema surprises in recent memory. If you appreciate French arthouse comedies of a very special kind, you simply can't miss this film. Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp