One more day of laughter to forget the annoyances of almost two years of the pandemic.
Canceled last year due to coronavirus, the Alpe d'Huez Festival, which celebrates French comedy, unveiled its rich selection and extended duration on Friday.
Its 25th edition will be held from January 17 to 23, 2022. Actress Michèle Laroque will chair the jury, succeeding actor and comedian José Garcia.
“
25 years since the Alpe d'Huez Festival has been celebrating these films which lighten up everyday life, bring breaths of fresh air and lift hearts. 25 years that we can live in front of all the screens of the Festival this magical moment when the entire room will take its momentum to explode with laughter in unison
”, greeted Michèle Laroque. The former resident of the famous show with sketches "The class" will be accompanied, within the jury, by the actresses Mathilde Seigner and Joséphine Japy (
My unknown
), the humorist Malik Bentalha and the director Ruben Alvès (
Miss
).
The festival is "
a clever mix of confirmed talents and figures in the making, with social and romantic comedies, big machines and others more modest
", promises its director Frédéric Cassoly who invited on the tracks the veterans of laughter that are Franck Dubosc, Kev Adams, Jérôme Commandeur, Audrey Dana, Thierry Lhermitte or Ramzy Bedia.
Public service and group therapy
Among the first eight films in the competition are
Irréductible
by and with Jérôme Commandeur, accompanied by Lætitia Dosch, Pascale Arbillot, Gérard Darmon or even Christian Clavier and Valérie Lemercier.
This comedy follows an official transferred "to the worst corners of France" by an inspector.
For her third directorial film, Audrey Dana parodies Pedro Almodovar's classic with
Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Its cast of male actors brings together for group therapy in the heart of nature: Thierry Lhermitte, Ramzy Bedia, François-Xavier Demaison ...
Audrey Lamy and François Cluzet will also be on screen in
La Brigade
,
on the adventures of a canteen "in a home for undocumented minors", or a film that could make the link between the generations,
Maison de Retraite
, with Kev Adams facing Gérard Depardieu, Liliane Rovere or Mylène Demongeot.
The spectators will also be able to discover the continuation of the comedy on the male environment of synchronized swimming
Revenge of the glittery shrimps
.
Cédric Le Gallo and Maxime Govare bring together Nicolas Gob, Michael Abiteboul, David Baïot, Romain Lancry, Bilal El Atreb.
Holidays in Greece and expatriation
We smile for the photo
of François Uzan (
Arsène Lupine
) sees Thierry (Jacques Gamblin) spending his days classifying his family photos, convinced that the best is behind him. When Claire (Pascale Arbillot), his wife announces to him that she is leaving him, Thierry, devastated, suggests that she redo "Greece 98", their best family vacation. But the children, now in their thirties, are less docile than 20 years ago. By trying to rekindle the flame of his couple, Thierry risks setting his family on fire ...
Frédéric Quiring
(Sales gosses)
is back with
La classe internationale
.
Melha Bedia plays a young suburban teacher worn out by her students who sees a transfer to Barcelona as a way to breathe new life into her career.
But that's without counting on the competition of a teacher from a chic high school in Paris played by Audrey Fleurot François Berléand as an academy inspector will play the referees.
Also starring Antoine Bertrand, Philippe Rebbot and Côme Levin,
Trois fois rien
by Nadège Loiseau tells the fate of Casquette, La Flèche, Brindille and his dog Connard who live as they can in the Bois de Vincennes.
Until the day they win 300,000 euros in the Loto.
Franck Dubosc is one of the directors presented out of competition, with
Rumba la vie
.
He plays Tony, a withdrawn school bus driver who lives alone after abandoning wife and child twenty years earlier. Shaken by a heart attack, he finds the courage to face his past and enroll incognito in the dance class led by his daughter in order to (re) conquer her and give meaning to his life.
The rest of the program will be unveiled shortly.
As every year, the selection of the festival will ultimately include around fifteen feature films and around ten short films in competition.
During its last edition, in January 2020, 45 screenings welcomed 20,000 spectators.
Open to the general public and completely free, the Alpe d'Huez event is one of the few devoted to comedy in Europe.