If hearing someone describe a film as "madcap" and "very French" makes you clutch your Adam Sandler DVD collection tight to your chest, you may want to vacation somewhere other than "C√¥te d'Azur" (also known as "Crustacés et coquillages").
This film, in French with English subtitles, was written and directed by Oliver Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
"C√¥te d'Azur" is a complicated story of relationships, family and sexuality. When Marc (Gilbert Melki) takes his wife Béatrix (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and their two children, 19-year-old Laura (Sabrina Seyvecou) and 17-year-old Charly (Romain Torres), to the seaside house of his youth on C√¥te d'Azur, life quickly becomes more complex than a vacation should ever be.
First Laura runs off with her biker boyfriend (very little of her is seen for the rest of the film), then Charly's "best friend" Martin arrives for a visit which leads Charly's parents to wonder whether or not Charly is gay (viewers with any gay-dar, however, may not wonder quite so hard based solely on Charly's unibrow and mane of messy White Lion-esque hair). Next Béatrix starts running out at night to have sex with her lover Mathieu (Jacques Bonnaffé) and an old flame of Marc shows up in the unlikeliest of situations.
Needless to say, things get complicated. But things also get really weird. If you have fond memories of your parents doing a lascivious song and dance, complete with your mom in her shortest of shorts, for the sole entertainment of you and a friend on a rainy afternoon, well, you're probably French.
There's plenty of sexuality on display. Though not explicit, its very subtlety is enough to make many Americans uncomfortable. Like when the parents are eating oysters and making sexual comments about the taste in front of the kids. Eww. No wonder Laura runs off with the biker.
I'd say no French film is complete without a non-sequitur song and dance number at the end, but that wouldn't be true. However, "Côte d'Azur" ends this very way, for reasons that are unclear but will have even the most ardent Francophile leaving the theatre scratching their tête.
Spend a madcap summer on 'Côte d'Azur'
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