Grande Bouffe, La

Marco Ferreri's best known film was a succès de scandale in its day, although its intrinsic merits are highlyquestionable. Very much in mood of the late '60s/early '70s Zeitgeist and reminiscent of the anti-bourgeois satires of Bunuel and the Fellini of Satyricon or the Pasolini of Saló, it tells the story of four friends (Marcello Mastroiannini, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Piccoli) who get together in a mouldering19th century house somewhere in the banlieus of Paris in order to eat themselves to death.

Both in terms of the existential defiance of the pact and the blow-by-blow description of the men's demise, the film sets out to is a literal desecration of all that conventional bourgeois society holds dear. ln the context of the anti-establishmentarian decadence of the '70s this was in itself a virtue, but that does not necessarily make a particularly interesting film. Unlike Bunuel's satires, there is nothing here either thematically or cinematically that rewards. 

The film starts off well enough and even manages a certain erotic frisson once the lads decided to invite a trio of putes and a comely neighbouring school marm (Andréa Ferréol) to join in but there is really nothing at stake (well, except steak) conceptually here and gradually the thin premise (we don't why then men have decided to gorge themselves to death) wears out as one by one they achieve their goal.

DVD Extras: An informative 45m exposition by Melbourne film academic, Rolando Caputo, on Ferreri's films.

Available from: Umbrella Entertainment

 

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