Waiting for Bojangles
Virginie Efira and Romain Duris light up the screen in an ebullient farce about the joys of ignoring responsibility.
Life of the party: Virginie Efira and Solan Machado Graner
Back in Paris, in 1967, an earthquake targeted children in the middle of their algebra class. A hole opened up in the middle of the classroom and half the children plunged into it. Just kidding. Actually, there’s a lot of kidding in Régis Roinsard’s adaptation of Olivier Bourdeaut’s best-selling novel, a freewheeling caper about a family of liars. That might be a bit unfair, but Georges, Camille (or whatever she chooses to call herself that day) and their son Gary (as in Gary Cooper) all have vivid imaginations. Back in 1958, on the Riviera, Georges (Romain Duris) romances Antoinette (Virginie Efira) by posing as a descendant of Dracula at a Success Story Weekend soirée. His success, he tells those prepared to listen, is in the manufacture of harpoons designed to kill flies.
There’s no shortage of inspiration in this wildly entertaining confection, with Duris laying on the swagger with outrageous insouciance and Efira charming the birds out of the trees. In fact, when the family has settled in Paris nine years later, they have added a damselfly crane to the mix, a bird they dub Mademoiselle Superfluous.
While superficially a carefree caper about the joys of irresponsibility, the film harbours a darker heart. But so long as the irreverent trio occupy centre stage, incessantly dancing to just one record – a .45 of Jerry Jeff Walker’s ‘Mister Bojangles’, as sung by Marlon Williams – the film is hard to resist. Of course, Duris and Efira are accomplished veterans, so it’s the nine-year-old Solan Machado Graner who is the real surprise, a scene-stealing dynamo of endless mischief and, when needed, pathos. He is a real find. Add to that the sumptuous cinematography of Guillaume Schiffman and the eye-catching locales of the Côte d'Azur, Paris and Valencia, there is much to engage the attention. But in the last third, the film’s more serious intentions come to the fore, sounding a jarring note to the preceding high jinks. Of course, the lyrics of the titular song offer a bittersweet coda, suggesting that while we can we should dance, because that’s better than succumbing to the inevitable consequence of life’s harsh realities.
Original title: En attendant Bojangles.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Virginie Efira, Romain Duris, Grégory Gadebois, Solan Machado Graner.
Dir Régis Roinsard, Pro Olivier Delbosc and Jean-Pierre Guérin, Screenplay Romain Compingt and Régis Roinsard, from the novel by Olivier Bourdeaut, Ph Guillaume Schiffman, Pro Des Sylvie Olivé, Ed Loïc Lallemand, Music Clare Manchon and Olivier Manchon, Costumes Emmanuelle Youchnovski.
Curiosa Films/JPG Films/StudioCanal/ Sofinergie Capac/France 2 Cinéma/Umedia/France Télévisions/Canal+/uFund-StudioCanal.
124 mins. France/Belgium. 2021. US Rel: 2 September 2022. Cert. 12.
