Cockles and Muscles

To be shown: 11 December 2006

France 2005
90 minutes
Directors: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau
Starring: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Gilbert Melki, Jean-Marc Barr.

Synopsis

This film is a frothy comedy with a dramatic edge. Marc (Gilbert Melki), his wife Béatrix (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and their teenage children Laura and Charly are spending the summer on the Cote d'Azur but there are complications. Laura unexpectedly goes off with her biker boyfriend and the parents discover that 17-year old Charly is gay when his ‘out and proud' sleep-over guest joins him in the shower – but is he? Then there's Béatrix's ex, Matthieu, who isn't as ex as Marc believes.

Finally, Didier, the plumber (Jean-Marc Barr), turns up and gives Marc another problem to deal with, not exactly concerning boilers and ball valves.

Secrets and misunderstandings abound but the truth will have to be faced eventually, painful though it may be. Despite this, there are sufficient wry smiles and running jokes along the way to keep the audience from becoming too melancholy, not to mention a couple of song and dance numbers.

Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is the star as the languorous, sexy, avowedly unconventional Béatrix. The gorgeous Gilbert Melki plays to perfection the disapproving father who is forced to re-assess the family's relationships, even if it takes the prodigious consumption of fruits de mer to help him realise it!