Alain Resnais's I Want to Go Home (1989)

I can't make up my mind about this film: although it's certainly not one of Resnais's best, can we really talk about this great director's worst? The word 'worst' doesn't seem to fit the man, and the fact that all of the characters are unbelievable seems to be irrelevant.

Joey Wellman (Adolph Green) is the main character, and Green wrote the screenplay for Singin' in the Rain. Here he plays a cantankerous, very loud-voiced ageing American bigot visiting France for the first time, and distressed that not everyone can understand his language. In fact, the film is in essence about Franco-American relationships. Joey has come over with his partner Lena (Linda Lavin) for a cartoon exhibition in Paris, but is more interested in finding his daughter Elsie (Laura Benson), whom he's not seen for two years as she's gone to Paris to study for an MA on Flaubert. It so happens that the Sorbonne expert on Flaubert, the person she's been seeking to read her thesis, Christian Gaultier (Gérard Depardieu), also seems to be an expert on BDs, and has invited Joey and Lena to the home of his mother Isabelle (Micheline Presle).

I didn't say that cartoon bubbles 'Hep Catt' and 'Sally Catt' frequently appear by Joey and Elsie's heads, as if as the viewer is reading their secret thoughts, seeing them disagreeing with themselves, acting as their superego, etc. But this is not off-putting, it works in well with the general comedy item which this film is. So are we really concerned when Christian (who's still not read Elsie's dissertation) joins in the fancy dress party at his mother's dressed at Popeye, Joey as Hepp Catt, Elsie as Tweetie Pie, etc? No, not a bit.

Then Joey escapes from the party to the village, desperate to leave for America. The locals don't understand any English, he tries to make them understand by singing American songs, gathers quite a crowd of villagers around him. Worried, Elsie and Lena seek him out, and find him the star of attraction in the local café. How does this end? Obviously, wannabee French gonzesse Elsie returns to the States, as does Lena, leaving behind Joey who's happy with Christian's mother. How's that for Franco-American relationships?