The Screw

This short movie is a jewel! It brings us in a very strange world which is not very understandable but which is finally quite close to our world of incomprehension. For that Didier Flamand used a weird language, showing (like Tati already did a long time ago) that people don't understand each other even with the same language. And the weakness of languages is well shown here!

Flamand created a new language by mixing French words and foreign tones that mostly sound German. German? Hem…It's quite ironic when you see the "Hitler-like" mustache of Jean Reno in the movie! And this leads us to think about Chaplin's "Great Dictator". "la Vis" is really influenced by Chaplin or Buster Keaton because of the beautiful black and white shots, the "mute" sense of humor, the old captions at the beginning, the way Reno acts and the production design which reminds Chaplin's `Modern Times'.

Thus the mixed influence of Chaplin and Tati works very well, and the special atmosphere can also remind Jeunet and Caro's "Delicatessen" mostly for the craziness of the characters. The actors are perfect, especially the magistral Jean Reno, and they should deserve a standing ovation because of the difficulty of their roles. Therefore it's an amazing mad movie… and the end is splendidly burlesque! 10/10 and the movie really deserved all the prizes it won everywhere in the world.