Louise - Michel

France 2008, 94 minutes
Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
In French with English subtitles
Rating: [M]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Comedy / Black Comedy

Topics: Business & Economics, Gender-bender.

Feat. Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Benoit Poelvoorde, Albert Dupontel, Mathieu Kassovitz

Aroview: A black comedy treasure about a newly redundant factory worker who hires a dodgy hit man to take out her rich employers. The trouble starts when the hit man indulges in a spot of outsourcing himself.

Tributing the French revolutionary of the same name, this mixes in her anarchic ideals with an absurdist streak most often seen in Scandinavian cinema, while Moreau and Lanners serve up deliciously deadpan performances and as the gender-ambiguous couple. Most of the numerous farcical set-pieces work a treat thanks to the deceptively precise direction while its subtext is sadly salient about capitalistic forces in the globalized age.

NZ International Film Festival 2009