Bye Bye Morons

Albert Dupontel directs and stars in an appealing farce that swept the French Oscars.

Virginie Efira and Albert Dupontel

In this country Albert Dupontel is best known as an actor in other people’s films but he is multi-talented and has starred in seven feature films which he directed himself and for which he worked on the screenplay too. The latest such venture is Adieu les cons which now reaches us as Bye Bye Morons and, if his name is hardly enough to sell a film here, this piece is nevertheless much anticipated. The reason for that is simple: not only has the film been a smash hit at the French box-office, but it is a comedy that arrives garlanded with no less than seven prestigious Césars (its awards include best film, best original screenplay and best director). For British audiences particularly there is yet another cause for high expectations: the film is dedicated to the late Terry Jones and includes a brief cameo appearance by Terry Gilliam. With all that going for it, it would be a surprise if it were not a big success here, but it is nevertheless legitimate to ask if it can live up to its reputation.

Those approaching a Dupontel comedy for the first time might be encouraged by the names of Jones and Gilliam to expect something Pythonesque, but that is hardly what we get. It’s also the case that a related comparison that has been made by some could mislead too: Bye Bye Morons has been seen as being in the spirit of Brazil (1985), but it lacks the Orwellian depths that made Gilliam’s film so sharp. What we do get in Dupontel's film is an opening scene in which the leading female character, Suze Trappet (Virginie Efira), learns from her doctor (Bouli Lanners) that, although only 43 years of age, she has but a short time to live. As it proceeds Bye Bye Morons will incorporate elements of screwball comedy but throughout it is wisely played straight. In that first scene, however, only such details as the doctor getting the name of his patient wrong provide a light enough touch to bring humour into what might otherwise have been the introduction to a downbeat drama.

Dupontel’s own role here is that of Jean-Baptiste Cuchas, an efficient civil servant who finds himself demoted simply to advance younger colleagues. Not only saddened but angered, he decides to shoot himself (the film’s title is the wording that ends his suicide note). Here the comic aspect within a potentially dramatic situation is more forcefully present. First, it comes out in the dialogue exchanges and then, when the suicide bid goes awry and somebody else gets a bullet instead, the tone becomes that of black comedy. The plot takes off at this point by linking Suze and Jean-Baptiste. She is desperate to track down the whereabouts of the son who was removed from her and adopted when she gave birth to him at the age of fifteen; he has to prove that the shooting of his colleague was accidental. The evidence to prove that exists, but it falls into Suze’s hands and she refuses to produce it unless he helps her in her quest.

Finding effective comedy despite having a storyline that could have been treated as drama is not the easiest of tasks but Dupontel brings it off. It helps enormously that he and Virginie Efira prove to be an ideal team never playing knowingly for laughs and perfectly balanced. There’s good support too, not least from Nicolas Marié as a blind archivist who becomes involved in their attempts to track down Suze’s son. Their actions are a defiant reaction against authority that is seen by them as unfair and incompetent and it is surely good timing to provide an audience lately subjected to lockdowns with the opportunity to identify with these disgruntled rebels. It helps too that Dupontel avoids an overlong running time (he brings in his film in a little under 90 minutes).

There is a lot to enjoy here and, even if beneath the surface the film expresses a certain sadness for the state of modern life, it is first and foremost a comic piece. For some viewers that will be enough to carry them through to an appreciation of the whole film. But for me, if not necessarily for others, the last third of the film is something of a letdown. It gives prominent roles to two fresh characters in a way that alters the tone and these later scenes come close to whimsical romanticism. Admittedly the film does then unexpectedly redeem itself with an ending which seems to borrow from a classic film of a very different kind. It took me totally by surprise and compensates a bit for that change of tone. What really counts though is the fact that in times like this we can all do with a good comedy and for much of its length that is what Bye Bye Morons is.

Alternative title: Adieu les cons.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Virginie Efira, Albert Dupontel, Nicolas Marié, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Uchan, Bastien Ughetto, Maillou Aussilloux, Bouli Lanners, Joséphine Hélin, Michel Vuillermoz, Catherine Davenier, Terry Gilliam.

Dir Albert Dupontel, Pro Catherine Bozorgan, Screenplay Alberty Dupontel, Xavier Nemo and Marcia Romano, Ph Alexis Kavyrchine, Pro Des Carlos Conti, Ed Christophe Pinel, Music Christophe Julien, Costumes Mimi Lempicka.

ADCB Films/Gaumont/France 2 Cinéma/Canal+/Ciné+/Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)/Entourage Pictures/Mikros Image-Curzon Artificial Eye.
87 mins. France. 2020. Rel: 23 July 2021. Cert. 12.