It’s Cannes time of year so I’m in big-screen mood.
I’ve been meaning to send a carte postale about Holy Cow for a few weeks but now, seeing all the stars walk the red carpet in their frocks* felt the right time to celebrate a cracker of a film whose stars are not even actors, never mind million-buck-wearing, age-defying megastars.
Holy Cow – or Vingt Dieux as it’s called in the OG – is set in the Jura, in the east of France, and portrays the tough lives of teens growing up in rural communities.
It’s a film debut by Louise Courvoisier, a Jurassienne who, thanks to her personal knowledge of the region, has succeeded in writing and directing a tough but touching and amusing portrayal of rural life.
Totone, the main character, is played by Clément Faveau, a poultry farm worker in real life, alongside a largely unprofessional – but stunning – young cast.
When his alcoholic father dies, Totone is left in charge. He’s 18 years old and soon discovers that it’s not easy to feed a sibling, get her to school, earn money and get trollied every night.
So he sets off on a journey to make gold-medal Comté cheese, along with the help of his older-than-her-years little sister Claire, a banger-racing mate called Mathis and the dumbass Francis, in the hopes of netting the €30,000 prize money.
I loved the portrayal of young women in this film.
Not afraid to take on the hardest jobs on the farm, Totone’s love interest Marie-Lisa is running the show, delivering calves, bearing scalding hot water, outsmarting her meat-head brothers and displaying an enviable sexual frankness. She rocks.
In fact, Holy Cow does have a couple of things in common with Cannes, despite the lack of glitterati.
Firstly, it won the Festival de Cannes Youth Prize last year and secondly, the blockbusters for which Cannes is known were in part inspiration for this whisper-shout of a movie.
Courvoisier grew up in the Jura on a diet of mainstream DVDs and claims to have used inspo from movies such as Fast and Furious and Magic Mike for parts of this film.
Vivement recommandé.
*Talking of frocks, were you amused at the new dress code rules at Cannes?
The festival has always had a strict dress code but it now also forbids naked dresses (to protect ‘decency’ – a horrid word imo) and overly voluminous gowns and dresses with long trains (apparently, it’s a ballache for seating plans).
Those railing against it think it’s another way to police women’s bodies, or an insidious push towards conservatism.
The same set of rules bans women from NOT wearing heels… oh well, my glittering Cannes career has faltered before it began. No heels is one hill I’m willing to die on!
Before I went 100% plant-based, oh yes, comté cheese! Love it.
The film sounds really good, too, just the sort of story I like.
Found this film vachement bon (pun intended). Love too what you have written about it.