That's what the title means but beyond this somewhat pretentious title, there's nothing in this film which deserves plaudits.
Camille De Casabianca is Alain Cavalier's daughter, an author of estimable works such as "le Combat Dans L'Ile" (1962), "l'Insoumis" (1964), "un Etrange Voyage" (1980) in which her daughter shared the bill with Jean Rochefort and especially "Thérèse" (1986), perhaps the best of the batch. Being the daughter or the son of a respectable filmmaker can be useful and beneficent when one wants to shoot a film. But if these Cavalier's films had rather original topics, one can't attribute this asset to "Vive Nous!" which can't hold up to Cavalier's works. On a comedy which is supposed to be light and graceful, Camille De Casabianca only manages to deliver us a derivative, mawkish master plan which consists in a faded summary of three women belonging to a cozy social condition in the heart of their sentimental adventures. The average viewer knows this constricting subject too well and has seen it a thousand times before, so why bother? The female director gets the lion's share and acts a quite well-off architect who does judo. Waiting to get a divorce with her husband, she feels attracted to her robust teacher (Dieudonné). The latter has a hankering to have a love affair but hesitates to act, paralyzed by his lowly social condition. You get the picture.
The actors do what they can to give a semblance of life to characters as thick as bible paper and the female director included dreamlike sequences for good measure to make the whole take off. It's no use and the audience is caught in a torpor maintained by a dull cinematography, failed comical effects and a succession of commonplaces of every kind pertaining to such a corny scheme.
On a film composed of three subplots, Camille De Casabianca holds the main role but given her frail appearance, it's hard to swallow that she can progress fast in judo. More annoying is her glib acting and her somewhat ludicrous voice. As for the directing, had she gone into overdrive, his effort could have been at least watchable if not memorable. But "Vive Nous!" is none of these things and is at her actress' image: fragile and bland.
