| French writer-director Francis Veber (The Dinner Game) has had one foot in, one foot out of the mainstream for years. The original versions of his films are known (mostly in France) for their biting wit, but their Hollywood remakes (among them Le jouet as The Toy and La Cage aux Folles as The Birdcage), merely suggest that, of all French films, it’s the farces that translate most easily for North American consumption.
Thankfully, The Closet (Le Placard) has yet to be "reimagined" by American filmmakers – and it probably never will be. Although it’s a broadly farcical situation comedy, The Closet also bears the underpinnings of a clever satire. The story of François (Daniel Auteuil), a heterosexual man who pretends to be a homosexual so his bosses at the condom factory can’t fire him, The Closet takes a good solid poke at the prevailing attitudes concerning sexual politics and workplace decorum in corporate culture today.
While difference – or "otherness" as it’s referred to in theoretical discourse – often provides the basis for comedy, rarely is discrimination itself responsible for the laughs. The edge of Veber’s script is thus honed by turning otherness on its head, and his gags target the gossips and homophobes who would normally perpetuate prejudicial sexist stereotypes. In particular, the macho personnel director, played by Gérard Depardieu, is taken almost too far over the top as his superiors struggle to make him a kindler, gentler, more open-minded executive.
This is not only subversive, but funny, although the acting (particularly Depardieu’s) is more than hammy at times, and the outcome is never less than predictable. Ultimately, the moralism of Veber’s fable becomes slightly cloying, as the film suggests that a simple change in perspective from time to time is enough to make that stultifying job at the plant more bearable. In its own right, this idea shows a glimmering of anti-authoritarianism, but never enough to make one forget that Veber is more concerned with the funnybone than he is with the monkeywrench. |
