Francophonie Film Festival
Hosted by Alliance Francaise Palmerston North
Globe Theatre
March 19 to 21, 2021
Opening night review by Damian Thorne
As part of French Language and Francophonie Week in New Zealand, Alliance Francaise Palmerston North has lined up a selection of French language films. The opening was a fine wine-enthused soiree with speeches, piano music and the screening of French blockbuster Le Grand Bain (Sink or Swim).
Hilariously, even more than the film, this is one of two films to release in 2018 about men's synchronised swimming, the other being the British Rob Brydon vehicle Swimming with Men.
A film about a group of male misfits forming a synchronised swimming squad, I am struck with the irony of watching it on a pull-down screen in Globe theatre two, a Frankenstein of an auditorium which has never really found usefulness. With now 12 movie screens in Palmy it is indeed disappointing, especially in current Covid conditions, that a deal could not be struck to show this festival on an actual movie screen. I digress.
Complete with an undeveloped, non-subtitled black character, and a dangerous portrayal of a depressive stopping medication cold turkey without suffering withdrawal symptoms, Le Grand Bain is a lumpy take on The Full Monty, transporting the action to a swimming pool, without any great originality, and one too many montages.