Best French Films Ever.
Top Rated French Movies: popular, classic, famous "must watch" Cinema Fançais

2. Gazon Maudit (French Twist, also Bushwhacked)

A wonderful, clever, life affirming film.

Superficially a farce, the plot is more intricate than than you might expect, and Josiane Balasko pulls off the clever trick for a farce of making the story credible and the characters sympathetic.

The film is set in the South of France, near Avignon. Here we find Laurent (Alain Chabat), a womanising real estate agent, and his gorgeous Spanish wife, Loli (Victoria Abril) about to have their lives turned upside down by Marijo (Josiane Balasko), who comes to their house by accident and stays.

Soon, a captivating love triangle emerges, but a dynamic triangle like no other you have seen in any cinema.

All of the characters are perfectly cast and the unusually abrupt editing also works brilliantly.

Balasko wrote the film as well as directing and starring in it. She has produced a real pearl. Like many great films this one veers deliberately between high comedy and tragedy. In between the belly laughs, there is pathos in the Antoine character, in Lauren's comeuppance, and in Marijo's scene on the streets of Paris.

The film encapsulates the most notable difference between European and modern Hollywood films, namely that it is not always obvious how the plot is going to develop - and the unexpected yet plausible twists and turns provide the film's greatest attraction. See if you can guess the final plot twist.

If you do not fall in love with Loli, please seek immediate medical attention.