The mockumentary comedy format has been around for decades, dating back to Monty Python and SNL short films by Albert Brooks, via Los Rutles, this is lumbar puncture and all Christopher Guest films. But it really blew up on TV when Ricky Gervais The office debuted in 2001. Yes, that was 23 long years ago, and it seems like some show with that format has been on our TVs since then, most of them employing the same type of cringe comedy that was less common when Gervais made it. . A new French mockumentary series takes that embarrassing dynamic and drops it on the set of a movie that was basically doomed to fail as soon as it turned its rookie writer into a rookie director.
FIASCO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: “Go ahead, Raphaël, tell me everything,” says a filmmaker. We see a bearded Raphaël Valande (Pierre Niney), director of A defiant womansquirming as he begins to speak.
The essence: While Raphaël and others talk to a filmmaker who is making a documentary about the “Making of” A defiant woman, we see snippets of how disastrous the filming of the movie really was. We then see Raphaël speaking from the prison interrogation room. “I had a dream and someone decided I wouldn’t make it. Do you want to know who it is?
As producer Jean-Marc Torrosian (Pascal Demolon) guides the filmmaker around the set on the first day of shooting a year earlier, we see first-time director Raphaël, who also wrote the film, talking nervously to Ingrid Flaumenbaum (Géraldine Nakache), who plays to her grandmother. She is the protagonist of Raph’s film, which focuses on her grandmother’s work for the French resistance during World War II, but the script spans different eras. And it’s obvious from Raph’s awkward conversation that a) he’s in love with Ingrid and b) he’s never been on a movie set before.
As he begins filming the first scene, Raph shows that he is in way over his head. His male star, Robin Jacoment (Vincent Cassel), bullies him into filming without smoke effects. And he doesn’t even get to say “Action,” and the vice principal and others yell at him when he doesn’t want to do it.
Raph’s grandmother (Marie-Christine Barrault), who never approved of this movie, comes to the set with her brother and sister. She seems unfazed by the whole thing; but she did promise that the daughter of the people who bought the cattle from her could do all the stunts, something Ingrid was trained and was eager to do.
During lunch, Jean-Marc takes Raph aside and tells him that he needs to assert himself and say “I’m the boss.” He then encourages Raph to talk to the cast and crew over lunch. The speech goes horribly wrong, as he uses really explicit language to tell everyone what he won’t tolerate being said on his set, pointing out Ingrid’s low-cut top and mentioning her sausage, among other things.
Later, we see Raph talking to Ingrid about that speech, claiming that he was trying to get her angry, in order to play his tough-as-nails grandmother. He then mentions Method’s performance and launches into a long, boring story about running into Christian Bale in a restaurant bathroom; Ingrid insults him as a way to get into character, then directs her vitriol at the stunt coordinator, who happens to walk into the room while this is happening.
Jean-Marc finds out that someone on the team took a video of Raph’s inappropriate speech and threatens to post it on social media (Jean-Marc is a dinosaur, he thought “post” meant mail) if they don’t pay up. 50,000 euros. He tries to keep the news away from Raph, but he received a copy of the email. So now, in addition to not having control of his own set, Raph has a mole to deal with.
What shows will it remind you of? The discomfort of Fiasco reminiscent of Ricky Gervais’s original version of The office either Additional features.
Our opinion: We specifically mention the original. Office unlike the American version or any of the mockumentary comedies that have appeared since, to note that this comedy format has been consistently on television for almost a quarter of a century, and its beats haven’t really changed. We have a lot of shame lines, a lot of things that go wrong because the person in charge doesn’t have the ability to lead, a lot of misunderstandings and things that get out of control.
It’s a well-worn format, and because Niney and his co-creator, Igor Gotesman, rely heavily on embarrassment and awkwardness, we don’t feel like we’re seeing anything new or refreshing here. Most of the comedy of the first episode comes from the fact that Rafe has no idea what he’s doing and has no ability to be assertive at all. How many times will we watch him put his foot in his mouth before we wonder why Jean-Marc and the other producers don’t fire him and put a real director in charge? How the hell did someone who financed the movie agree to let this wet rag direct the movie?
Sometimes the cringe is funny, like when Rafe claims he likes dubstep and says they “just released some hits.” But for the most part, we see Rafe as a guy who’s gotten himself into a situation he shouldn’t be in, and we’re just waiting to see what happens that sends this usually unassuming man to prison.
Sex and skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: A complicated stunt is about to go very wrong because, in the process of apologizing to the stunt coordinator for Ingrid’s Method insults, he saves a controller that activates too soon.
Sleeping star: François Civil plays Tom, Rafe’s childhood friend, who is determined to get a role, even though he is a terrible actor. We’re sure he causes a lot of chaos during filming.
Most pilot line: “I want to put my big sausage between mommy’s tits.” Yeah, Rafe says that during his lunch speech.
Our call: SKIP IT. While Fiasco It has a couple of funny moments, the cringeworthy mockumentary format it uses is tired and mostly left us stone-faced.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
