Les Visiteurs: A Fantasy and a Comedy Film
The film Les Visiteurs (Poire, 1993) is a fantasy and a comedy in which a knight from the eleventh century travels through time to the twentieth century and to the Paris of 1993. The film embodies elements of the film modes of the time and reflects ideas on social class and national identity for the French. The linking of past and present history helps give the idea of national identity a context and a continuum from medieval times to modern times. Continuity is also implied by the use of actors who have roles in the past and in the present, showing that they are descendants of the first group. Past and present are therefore linked most directly in the film. The film has a French sensibility in the humor that tends toward the gross and slapstick in some areas, and part of this use of humor involves contrasts between past and present:Much of the humor centers around the filthiness of the Middle Ages - people only bathing once a month, their rotting teeth and bad hygiene. Most of the characters in the present day are characterized as stuffy and uptight in their middle-class mores with the two characters from the Middle Ages being unleashed as a comic anarchic force to twist them on their head (Scheib 1996, para. 2).
What was more realistic and affecting in the French version has been simplified and made more like what is found in every other American film. Jackel notes how some of the conflicts between medieval customs and modernity are linguistic in nature, structure on differences in the French language between medieval times and today (p. Of course, these films also tend to connect with much of the world, perhaps because they deal so much with universal myths and metaphors. Just Visiting shows how an American version of a French film can have a very different cultural effect, though the poor reception for that film also suggests that the American approach is not a sure-fire winner for American audiences. Everything said here about how French film reflects French culture applies as well to other nations and their national cinemas. Les Visiteurs is an anomaly in this regard because it is a comic film that was highly successful at a time when comic films were not doing well. Les Visiteurs has humor that is tied to its country or origin, but it also has slapstick and other forms of humor that cross national boundaries quite easily. Films are always trying to balance between what is universal and what is only local. Some of the humor of the French film has meaning in France and little meaning elsewhere, but other examples of humor do have more universal meaning. That this was successful cannot be questioned given that the film was the highest grossing French film of its time, staying in first place for ten weeks and selling well on videocassette after that: "By this time it had become a cult film, and the final surge of interest represented a second or even third time viewing for many spectators" (Powrie, p. French films are tie dmore to the specific culture of France, and this is especially true of a comedy like Les Visiteurs, a film that relies on certain cultural symbols and continuing attitudes that may differ from those in other societies. One reason might be that the film has a heritage element that appealed to French audiences, given the link in the film between past and present and the sense of French culture as a continuum.
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Acceptance Essays
