Lewes Film Club - Cockles and Mussels

Whilst 'Cockles and Mussels' may register with a British audience as the title of an Irish folk song, the French equivalent, 'Crustaces et coquillages' is intended to reference an all together racier number by Brigitte Bardot. Both were deemed too complicated for an American audience, and it was eventually released in the States under the title 'Cote D'Azur'.

With aspirations to the tradition of a 'less bourgeois' Georges Feydeau or Pierre de Beaumarchais, the film plays out like a seaside version of a French bedroom farce. A liberal-minded couple take their two teenage children and one of their friends to the French Riviera in an effort to revive their dwindling sex life. Whilst the daughter soon drives off on the back of a boyfriend's motorbike, the son (Charly) finds himself mistakenly identified as gay. The conclusion is reached via his girlfriendless status, the (Dutch) zeal of his mother Beatrix (played by a top-form Valeri Bruni Tedeschi), and the amount of time he spends with his out-and-proud best friend, Martin. Add to this a sub-plot between Beatrix and an old flame, and you start to understand why one US critic memorably gave the film the tagline, 'The family that lays together, stays together'. However the childhood holiday destination turns up more than just memories for father Marc, and it is the surprisingly poignant twist of his story that finally saves the film from flippancy. ER