La Grande Bouffe Review
Marcello Mastroianni can never be accused of being a safe bet. After his role as the lead role in the wacky satire of Jacques Demy, A Slightly Pregnant Man He embarked on the fourth of Seven collaborations with Marco ferreri which reintroduced bodily functions to expose the suicide-prone nonsense of our society. The film was a polarizing experience for audiences since its debut at Cannes in which fight scenes were afoot among the reviewers and violence was not a distant memory during its long duration in Paris. It was reported that Mastroianni's former lover, Catherine Deneuve, was shocked by the movie that she stayed away from Mastroianni for the duration of the duration of a week.
This film is definitely one that will offend anyone. Its dark, funny humour is not subtle, each character is carefully created to represent the things Ferreri thought were contemporary evils, including the injustices perpetuated by the corrupt system of justice as well as the culture of insanity enthused by television; the lust of the industrialized world at a time while the rest of the world was in poverty and the insatiable desire for travel, in order to escape everyday life and build a world-wide village that was more easily controlled and used to profit. This is why Pier Paolo Pasolini was inspired by the bubbling toilets and the bottoms of their bowels to make his own violently scatalogical assault against the Fascist mindset in Salo which is also known as The 120 Days of Sodom.
The performances of the ensemble are extraordinary, whether complaining about their lives or engaged with food battles Mastroianni, Piccoli, Noiret and Tognazzi put aside their personal self-consciousness and put their confidence in Ferreri's soaring design. But, the impish Mastroianni is always the most prominent, since his sensuality that is opulent overpowers his depression and he obsesses over his statues in the garden as well as the Bugatti motor inside the garage before enjoying himself in a fling with the prostitute as well as the visiting schoolteacher. It's actually in a state of relief that his friends pack his body into the fridge , ready to relive their feast at peace.
