Yoyo

1965 comedy

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Yoyo, the son of a circus performer and a very rich man, reunites with his father and later takes ownership of his property. And he looks for love.

(Note: This is very poorly written, and this is a movie that deserved better. It's the sort of blog post that I write and then ask myself, "Why do I even bother doing this?" Here's really all you need to know about this movie: I watched it with great joy and more than likely a giant stupid grin on my face, and if you are anything like me, you should watch this so that you have the same great joy and stupid grin.) 

You should be aware that this is the sort of thing--a French comedy that's an homage to 1920's comedies and the work of Tati--that I'm going to fall in love with a lot more easily than most people. This is really a movie in three parts. The first is nearly silent and just stuffed with sight gags and exaggerated sound effects. It follows the father character, played by director Pierre Etaix, around his life of luxury. He's pampered even more than Eddie Murphy's character in Coming to America except I'm not sure he has somebody around to wash his junk. He is rich enough to have his own band roll in (the tuning-up sequence is pretty funny, by the way) and his own flappers to come in and dance for him. If only I was rich enough to enjoy that sort of luxury. The visual humor is delightful and constantly surprising. In fact, that's the thing that really makes this whole movie magical--its constant surprises. With so many visual gags, you'd think you'd start to get the hang of things and start figuring out what to expect, but you really never do. The first part of this movie is also so beautifully shot. There's lots of symmetry in this guy's home, so much that when something isn't symmetrical, it actually feels like a continuity error. There's a really great shot of a circus leaving horizontally beside a reflecting pool that looks like it came straight from a Fellini film. The first sequence also contains title cards. The stock market crashes which throws us into the second chunk of Yoyo, the family reunited and traveling as circus performers. There's some terrific black humor with the stock market stuff, and there was just something lovely about the way this little family was filmed traveling in their wagon. Parts reminded me of a Mickey Mouse cartoon where he and Minnie are in a Winnebago. Some of my favorite movies are when directors treat real people like they're cartoon characters. The third section is all Yoyo as an adult clown. He's also played by the director. Sight gags still abound as this morphs into a romantic comedy that tips its hat at the pervading entertainment of the day--the television. That mirroring of the transformation of entertainment maybe isn't as complete as it needed to be, but anything more profound probably would have gotten in the way of the simple characters and storytelling. And that's really the reason I liked this so much. And if you have any interest in French comedies, Jacques Tati, or Keaton and Chaplin, you'll probably really like this, too. If not, I'm not even sure I want you reading this blog anyway.

Pierre Etaix. I'd never heard of him. Now I have and probably will work my way through his entire filmography more quickly than I should.