French Twist
Encyclopedia


French Twist is a 1995 French comedy film. It was written and directed by co-star Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer and director.She was born Josiane Balašković in Paris. One of Balasko's most recognized roles among English speakers is as a lesbian in 1995's Gazon maudit...

. The film was a hit in France gaining 3,790,381 Admissions and grossing $1,026,646 in the United States.

Synopsis

Laurent (Alain Chabat
Alain Chabat
Alain Chabat is a French actor and director who appeared in La Cité de la peur, French Twist, The Taste of Others and The Science of Sleep.- Life and career :Chabat was born in Oran, French Algeria. He is Jewish....

) and Loli (Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....

) are a thirty-ish married couple living in southern France with their young children. He is an estate agent; she is a housewife. Laurent has extramarital affairs.

Loli is unaware that her husband is unfaithful. Then one day, a campervan breaks down in front of their house. The driver is Marijo (Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer and director.She was born Josiane Balašković in Paris. One of Balasko's most recognized roles among English speakers is as a lesbian in 1995's Gazon maudit...

), a 40s-ish butch
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...

 lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 who works as a DJ. She asks to use their phone. Loli has a blocked sink, so in exchange for using the phone, Marijo gets Loli's drain back in working order. Loli and Marijo begin an affair. Laurent is upset, but then his friend Antoine (Ticky Holgado
Ticky Holgado
Ticky Holgado , pseudonym of Joseph Holgado, was a French actor and a frequent collaborator with Jean-Pierre Jeunet....

) accidentally reveals Laurent's philandering to Loli. This seems to justify her romance. Marijo moves into the house.

Antoine then suggests that Laurent let Loli have her way, cease all hostility, and wait for the affair to burn out. Laurent agrees, and the household becomes a seemingly idyllic ménage à trois. But his strategy has its effect, especially after another lesbian couple, old friends of Marijo, happen by. Laurent welcomes them, but Loli becomes annoyed and jealous.

Marijo decides that the situation is not really going to work. She knows that Laurent wants her to leave. While Loli is away on a trip, Marijo makes a deal with Laurent. She will break up with Loli and leave immediately, if Laurent will give her something she has wanted for years: a baby. Laurent has sex with Marijo to get her pregnant, and Marijo departs before Loli returns. Laurent tells Loli nothing, as agreed with Marijo.

Laurent and Loli settle back down to their old life, but their relationship has been deeply affected. Then Loli hears from a mutual acquaintance that Marijo is living in Paris and is several months pregnant. Loli is astonished and shocked. She insists that she and Laurent go to Paris and contact Marijo. They find her working as a DJ in a lesbian dance club. Their intrusion provokes a quarrel with the club owner, who fires Marijo. Loli and Laurent take her back to their home, where she has her baby.

The ménage à trois is re-established, with the two mothers caring for their children. As a final twist, a handsome man (Miguel Bosé) moves into the neighbourhood and he and Laurent gaze into each other's eyes...

Cast

  • Victoria Abril
    Victoria Abril
    Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....

      as Loli
  • Josiane Balasko
    Josiane Balasko
    Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer and director.She was born Josiane Balašković in Paris. One of Balasko's most recognized roles among English speakers is as a lesbian in 1995's Gazon maudit...

      as Marijo
  • Alain Chabat
    Alain Chabat
    Alain Chabat is a French actor and director who appeared in La Cité de la peur, French Twist, The Taste of Others and The Science of Sleep.- Life and career :Chabat was born in Oran, French Algeria. He is Jewish....

      as Laurent
  • Ticky Holgado
    Ticky Holgado
    Ticky Holgado , pseudonym of Joseph Holgado, was a French actor and a frequent collaborator with Jean-Pierre Jeunet....

      as Antoine
  • Michèle Bernier  as Solange
  • Katrine Boorman
    Katrine Boorman
    Katrine Boorman is an English actress noted for her portrayal of the character Igrayne in the Arthurian legend film, Excalibur, directed by her father, John Boorman...

      as Emily Crumble
  • Miguel Bosé
    Miguel Bosé
    Miguel Dominguín Bosé is a Latin Grammy-winning Spanish/Italian musician and actor.-Early life:Bosé was born in San Fernando Hospital in Panama City, Panama, the son of the famous Italian actress Lucia Bosé and the legendary bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín. He is also a cousin of Carmen...

      as Diego, the Young Man
  • Maureen Diot  as Cristelle
  • Catherine Hiegel  as Dany
  • Catherine Lachens  as Sopha, the Boss
  • Catherine Samie
    Catherine Samie
    Catherine Samie is French actress and member of Comédie-Française from 1962. On July 14, 2011, she became Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor...

      as The Prostitute

Awards

Gazon maudit won Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer and director.She was born Josiane Balašković in Paris. One of Balasko's most recognized roles among English speakers is as a lesbian in 1995's Gazon maudit...

 the César Award for Best Writing
César Award for Best Writing
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Writing .-1975–1979:*1975: Bertrand Tavernier, Jean Aurenche: Que la fête commence...

 in 1996.

The film was also one of the 53rd Golden Globe Awards nominees in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
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