Name: Retro Film Review: Casque bleu (1994)
Item: Casque bleu
Rating: 16
Author: @drax

(source: imdb.com)

Nazi-occupied Poland was probably the least suitable place for a film maker to set comedy. In 1942 Ernst Lubitsch took that risk in To Be or Not to Be, and the result was one of Old Hollywood classics. Lubitsch's achievement was even greater because he managed to find the tin line between portraying dark, tragic reality and turning it into fantastic farce. Because of that Lubitsch's film can relate even to the viewers who now know that the real state of affairs in 1942 Poland was much worse than in the darkest corners of Hollywood imagination. French actor, writer and director Gérard Jugnot was perhaps inspired by this achievement while making Casque bleu, his 1994 comedy.

Protagonist of the film is Patrick (played by Gérard Jugnot), husband who has recently cheated on his wife Alicia (played by Victoria Abril). In a desperate attempt to save the marriage he takes Alicia to dream holiday on paradise island in the Mediterranean where two of them had met and hopes that the memories would rekindle their romance. However, upon arrival at the resort it turns out that the present reality is something different from past memories - quality of service is abysmal and the even their fellow Frenchmen anything but pleasant company. Things get even worse when the vicious and bloody ethnic war errupts on the island, and what was supposed to be dream holiday turns into nightmare.

Viewer doesn't have to be the rocket scientist in order to figure out that the plot was inspired by "unpleasantness" in early 1990s former Yugoslavia, or, to be more precise, nightmarish experiences of foreign tourists who were visiting Adriatic Coast of Croatia only to witness roadblocks, checkpoints, men with guns and other menacing signs of incomprehensible yet very palpable conflict. Locals even have distinctively Serbo Croatian word "drugovi" in their otherwise unintelligible dialect. Since the film was made while the war went on, seemingly without end in sight, it was easy to imagine film makers using the medium of comedy to take satirical stabs at Balkan chauvinism or Western unwillingness to intervene or understand this part of the world.

Unfortunately, Jugnot uses pseudo-fictional conflict as nothing more than an exotic setting for otherwise lame and predictable comedy that takes fun of French petty bourgeoisie and their values - something that had been seen in thousands in much better films. But this is nothing compared to Jugnot's cardinal mistake – in order to give some "authenticity" to the fictional events in films, he adds scene of carnage as graphic as the most unpleasant images from Sarajevo. Suddenly, the film stops being funny and protagonists and their petty problems are not interesting (and they weren't even likeable in the first place). Final nail to the film's coffin is put in the finale, when our "heroes" are rescued by French UN peacekeepers who manage to solve the crisis in a matter of days. Whoever witnessed the violent dissolution of former Yugoslavia first hand would probably be revolted with a way Casque bleu depart from historical reality, especially in its over-idealised treatment of "Blue Helmets" and their peace keeping – concept that would show its true face a year later in places like Srebrenica. But, then again, by being so far from reality, this film would offer good explanation why Western powers mishandled Balkan crisis. Their diplomats, generals and statesmen were probably as clueless as the author of this film.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 3rd 2002)