Problemos

"Problemos" will remind you of the movies which were made after May 68, the return to nature ,the hippie community where all you need is love .

Back from vacation ,Victor and Jeanne visit their good friend,Jean-Paul ,who lives in the mentioned community;their place is threatened for "they " want to build a "water" amusement park (the scene with the riot police is the weakest ,having been filmed a hundred times or more before).

But a pandemic strikes the whole(?) world and the hippies are the sole survivors ;now it's time to build the brand new world they 've been dreaming of for years .

They just forget one thing:human nature ;what's bred in the bone comes out in the flesh ;in one of the first sequences ,the newcomers' daughter,Margot ,wonders how she will live without her ipod ;besides "imagine no possessions" is not her cup of tea when another child takes HER stuff.A bad omen.

Before the disaster ,there are very funny scenes : "the dog has not stolen your meat,he 's just helped himself"; "sanitary towels pollute ,we do not need them anymore"; "we didn't choose a first name for our child,he will when he grows up;we didn't choose his/her sex (sic) either,it's up to him/her!"

When they realize that they are the survivors of a world they despise , they will soon discover that their world "without countries ,without possessions " is nothing but wishful thinking.

Simon,the intelligent black member of the community, does not renege on bourgeois comfort ;little by little he builds a house which looks more and more like yesterday's ones ;his mates are hypocrites : they blame Simon who lives in a "Château " ,but actually they envy him ;That's why they burn his desirable mansion ;and besides they try to imitate him by picking up stuff on the garbage dump ,remnants of the old civilization .

In principle ,they should not need a leader;but to have power on the others is a thing all those hippies ,like everybody,long for;ditto elections , those brothers are not brothers anymore .Will they need another enemy to stand all together ? Even though they do not call that "war"?

Perhaps they should do like the young girl who thinks she is in a play ,in a reality-show ,where you can win points ?

"Problemos" is uneven ,sometimes confused ,but the pessimistic side , in what is primarily a comedy, will not be lost on the viewer.

Like this ?try these......

"L'An 01 " Jacques Doillon ,1973

"Le Dernier Homme " Charles Bitsch ;1969

"Le Dernier Combat" Luc Besson ,1982.