France goes postal at French box office over new comedy film
February 28, 2008
A modest little French comedy about a postal worker banished to a poor region in the North of France exploded at the movie box office in France this weekend, essentially trouncing the opening of the most expensive film ever made in France.
In only five days, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis by French director Dany Boon attracted an astonishing 450,000+ movie goers in only 64 theatres in the Nord-pas-de-Calais region of France, the only area that ran it. The much-touted and star-studded Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques (Asterix at the Olympics) brought in 571,000 viewers, but that was in a huge roll-out in over one thousand theatres across France. Asterix stars French veteran actor Gerard Depardieu and a host of other big names in France and internationally. Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis has no big stars. But its warm, funny story struck a chord in France.
The northern region of France around Lille is generally looked down upon in much of the rest of France; somewhat in the fashion that New Jersey is viewed by New Yorkers, or the Poles by the Germans, only more so. Among its worst detractors, this region of France is often seen as dark, depressing, cold and rainy, and its people as poor, provincial, uneducated and unemployed alcoholics with little to offer. Dany Boon, the French director, hails from the northern region of France and made his film a self-deprecating comedy that nonetheless exalts the warmth and hospitality of the region’s people and area’s simple customs and charms, especially its distinct accent and dialect. Both the region’s dialect and the inhabitants are known as “Ch’ti.”
In the film, a French postal worker from sunny Provence in the south of France is transferred as punishment to a bleak town near Lille, a city in the maligned North of France. Abandoned by his wife who refuses to follow him there, and pitied by his friends, the French postman arrives in the depressing, rainy one-horse town prepared for the worst. As he is welcomed by his new neighbors, he is surprised by the friendship and pleasure he finds in his new simpler life. Misunderstandings between his southern French accent and the Ch’ti French dialect make for much of the humor.
Boon says nothing in the film is made up. “There’s a real sense of hospitality” declares the French filmmaker. “The people have a rare selflessness.” But he added that their reputation gets worse the further South in France one goes. “It’s as if people are saying, of course the northerners are nice to strangers, what else have they got?”
The French filmmaker describes the quintessential Ch’ti as someone who is both proud and humble about his distinct identity in France. “It’s an area of France that has suffered a lot with wars and economic problems, but that doesn’t stop it from generating a lot of energy with its customs, traditions and rich local patios, while always having concern and compassion for others.”
He went on to debunk myths in France about the Ch’ti people, saying that they drank no more than others in France, and that the region is number one in the creation of new businesses in France. He spoke of his origins as the son of a truck driver and a housemaid. “We didn’t have much but we were very happy. There’s a lot of conviviality among people there.”
Many say the film will be a boon for the region’s tourism, as people in other parts of France who have avoided the North because of long-standing prejudices will now want to experience the Ch’ti region of France for themselves.
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