Vous êtes jeunes vous êtes beaux

In spite of the title,which suggests another of those "feel good " comedy ,it's a dark drama ; the tragedy of old age ,when you are left by the wayside by a society who ignores you. In Tennesee Williams' "cat on a hot tin roof" ,Maggie says : " you've got to be old WITH money because to be old without it is just too awful".

Lucius is seriously ill , and probably ,if one is to believe his GP ,terminally ill , and pretty soon ,he won't be able to live alone; too poor to afford a private home for retired people , he's given a strange piece of advice....

"Fight club"..... A place where old people practice boxing ; the movie becomes a fable ,for how could a sick man do such a thing? ; fighting becomes a real struggle against the selfish society epitomized by the opponent ,a victim too ...In this unthinkable way ,they can make the dough the state denies them.

.....meets "They shoot horses don't they ?" For this is a circus ,with an MC , "Monsieur Loyal " ,who "cheers" the fighters in front of a young audience who pays for this inhuman bestial show to whom he shouts: "have a look at yourself as you'll be when you are old" ; this flabby flesh on a ring makes you hair stand on end.

For it's almost an eerie spooky movie: the visions of the hero ,for instance the little boy knocking on the pane seems to say "make way for tomorrow" ;it is similar to a trick used in an old French movie ,Jean Gourguet 's "son dernier rôle "(1945). The way Josiane Balasko's children fool their mom is given a treatment close to Gothic style ; and there's a precious ghostly appearance by Patrick Bouchitey,too rare on the screen. The young generation is represented by Jean-Paul Belmondo 's grandson,Victor ;the choice is relevant: his granddad had the guts to play a very old man in the remake of De Sica"'s"Umberto D " ,"un homme et son chien".

And it takes a lot of guts to perform such thankless parts as Gérard Darmon and his pals do in this tragedy .