Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. This evening: the cult film by Etienne Chatiliez.
After a career in advertising, Étienne Chatiliez embarked, alongside Florence Quentin, on writing Life is a Long Quiet River, his first feature film.
To create the Le Quesnoy and Groseille families, with very different social origins, but linked by blood in spite of themselves, he was inspired by both a news item (an exchange of babies that took place in a maternity hospital in Roubaix in the 1950s) and his own childhood memories.
Also occupying the position of director, Étienne Chatiliez dynamited French comedy, then a little purring, announcing a deliciously biting style, which would be confirmed with Tatie Danielle (1990) and Le Bonheur est dans le pré (1995).
Indeed, Life is a long calm river seduced by its incredible sense of detail (which gives rise to cult lines: “Monday is ravioli!”), his irreverent humor and the impeccable interpretation of a troupe of actors mostly from the theater.
When it was released in 1988, it was an unexpected triumph: 4 million spectators went to see it in theaters – a quite exceptional figure for a first film. This success then materialized with four Césars in the categories Best First Work, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Young Female Hope.
Life is a long quiet river by Étienne Chatiliez with Hélène Vincent, André Wilms, Christine Pignet…
Tonight on TF1 Séries Films at 9 p.m.