MartinHafer The quote from COOL HAND Luke seems quite appropriate here. While some adore "Préparez Vos Mouchoirs" (as typified by the mostly favorable reviews and the Oscar win for Best Foreign Film in 1979), others probably see the film in such a radically different light. To see it in this other light is perhaps seen by the "with it" crowd as evidence that an individual is devoid of taste and a Neanderthal. Yet, to those who hate it, the film is not just bad but evil...or at least very, very morally suspect.What I am talking about here is that in the second half of this comedy(?), the leading lady has an "affair" with a 13 year-old boy--and this seems to be a good thing according to the film. This is very reminiscent of "Le Soufflé au Coeur"--another French film that is adored by most "with it" people. However, in "Le Soufflé", the boy is not just a teen having sex with an adult but the adult in question is his own mother!!! Yet, review after review on IMDb for "Le Soufflé" describe the movie with such words as 'vibrant' and 'marvelous' as well as saying that it's 'a beautiful coming of age film'. For "Préparez Vos Mouchoirs", there are such appellations as 'clever', 'amusing' as well as 'fresh and surprisingly intelligent'. What part of morally wrong don't they understand?! Even if the rest of the film had been good (which, incidentally, it was not), how can such praised be heaped on a film that glamorizes or excuses sexual abuse? Now understand that I am NOT a French-basher. I love French films and they are my among favorite type of films (surpassing even the Japanese--which I also adore) and I have taken French classes to learn the language. But, in this one way, I think the French film makers have it all wrong. In fact, the recent glowing praise and support of Roman Polanski (who admitted to drugging and sodomizing a 13 year-old) illustrates this divide. Having worked as a social worker and then therapist with sexual abuse victims, this 19th century attitude towards the sexualization of children is quite sad. Sometimes and with some issues we provincial Americans are wrong...in this case, however, I suspect the French have something to learn from us about the way we have taken sexual abuse cases more seriously in recent years (though, of course, we still have a way to go).So if I was totally offended by the scenes that involved the 13 groping and leering at a beautiful (and willing) adult woman, what did I think about the rest of the film? Well, sadly, I didn't like it. The film has many absurdist elements that might appeal to some but will also leave many cold. Like director Blier's follow-up film, "Buffet Froid", so much of the film deliberately makes no sense and is intended to shock. If you like this sort of craziness, so be it, but the average person out there will not be particularly pleased with the film as it just seemed dumb and the characters seemed so unreal. I know that is the point the film makers intended, but that still doesn't mean I have to like it. If I want something goofy and insane, I'll watch a comedy like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"--this is absurdism but with the aim to make people laugh. "Préparez Vos Mouchoirs" does not seem to have any such intention. It seems more intent on confusion and bizarreness instead of being a comedy--sort of like performance art instead of film.Overall, there is almost nothing to recommend this film (unless you want to see a young looking 13 year-old making it with an adult). Incidentally, the actress was 30 and the child was actually 14. Would you let your 14 year-old participate in sex scenes with a 30 year-old in a film? Wouldn't this seem like pandering?

kenjha In this amusing French comedy, a man finds a lover for his depressed and sexually frustrated wife in an attempt to make her happy but even the lover can't satisfy her. She eventually finds happiness with a precocious 13-year old - only the French can make light of such a pairing! Depardieu as the generous and caring husband and Dewaere as the lover have good chemistry and provide most of the laughs. The two had previously teamed with Blier in "Going Places." Laure doesn't do much except sit around and knit (usually in the nude). This Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film isn't totally satisfying but is entertaining enough. The soundtrack features Mozart and Schubert.

Hera-8 This movie is quite similar to the American film "Rushmore," in that both films portray sensitive, intelligent young teen boys becoming infatuated with adult women twice their age. Major difference: Blier the guts that the director of "Rushmore" did not have."Rushmore," like most films about teen boys having crushes on older women, took the easy way out. The boy falls madly in love with his teacher, but the romance is never consummated. Instead, he encourages her, at the end of the film, to continue her affair with a much older married man. So, the message is the older men have the right to take advantage of younger women, yet not vice versa?In Blier's film, the relationship of boy and his adult crush is consummated. Therefore, the film breaks the mold. "Rushmore" merely follows a traditional (and just plain worn out) plot pattern.

merrywood This is one of the many films where after you read the reviews you ask, "Did these folks actually see the same movie I did?"Further it won the Import film of the year Academy Award. Essentially this is outrageous junk that was not really understood by its audiences, like much of the tongue-in-cheek art that hangs in modern art museums. Audiences have no clue and do not wish to be taken as fools so they join the crowd and rave about something they can't actually grasp. In fact, there is nothing at all to grasp.This is a French import that does not intellectually translate into any entertainment language known in the USA about a pre-teen boy who screws his bored governess Solange. (Préparez vos mouchoirs, indeed).Seeing the Academy flip over this outrageous and tiresome film destroyed even the slightest desire I ever had to return to Los Angeles to view a far more important scene, the La Brea Tar Pits. In the flowerchild American society of 1978 it had the pertinence of soiled newspapers that line garbage cans.