"Arrête Ton Cinema" (stop making movies) actually means in French "stop making such a fuss";it makes sense ,because the heroine is an actress who wants to try her hand at directing a film based on the story of her family.
Now female directors make more and more their presence felt on the French scene,but Diane Kurys did begin long before the boom ,in the late seventies ("Diabolo menthe" ) ;she was not that much new for all that ;before her,Jacqueline Audry,Agnès Varda and Nelly Kaplan ,to name but three ,are invariably held up as examples to prove that there are women directors who were doing cleverer things earlier;Kurys -except maybe in "Coup De Foudre"- predated ,among others, the "feel good" side which is currently poisoning the French movies.
Kurys may be a feminist but her women's behavior towards poor Alphonse is downright embarrassing ;it's a despicable "female" macho attitude ,so to speak ;and it is not even funny.
But Kurys is wittier,funnier ,when the heroine's story of her mother and sisters undergoes some change ,under Balasko's watchful eye: it was to take place in an hospital where the girls were nurses ;but the boss decided hospitals are gloomy ,so the hospital is turned into a stud farm :but horses are dangerous and it makes her change her mind: a bar with strip tease and hostesses would attract a larger audience ("but ,says the unfortunate candidate for directing ,my sisters were nurses,and you make them hookers!")
Even that is derivative: in Georges Lautner's "On Aura Tout Vu" , (1976) ,a shady producer (Jean-Pierre Marielle) turned a pure psychological drama in a pornographic flick ;ditto for Pirès's "Attention Les yeux" (1975).
However ,because she lacks the commitment or the focus to develop her ideas (or select well among them) ,Kurys ,unlike Audry ,Varda or Denis ,remains a minor female director; she does not fully exploit the idea of the extravagant screenplay imposed upon the heroine;besides ,we hardly get a glimpse of her family (who is concerned ,after all, for it is their story which is to be filmed !)
Josiane Balasko,wearing a horrible wig ,overplays; Sylvie Testud lacks glamour for this kind of role ,Zabou Breitman ,much more attractive,here cast as her bubble head collaborator , would have been more convincing as an adulated
star.Both should have swapped parts.
To crown it all,there's an appearance by Patrick Juvet ,a cheesy pop singer ,and his appalling disco song "Où sont Les Femmes?" is heard ;not exactly icing on the cake.
