The aircraft pilot Marcello, the chef Ugo, the TV choreographer Michel and the judge Phillipe decide to terminate their lives with a great pleasure, eating and having sex with three prostitutes and one school teacher invited to participate in their orgy.
I watched this unforgettable film in the 70's and I was very disturbed with this impressive metaphoric movie. In Brazil, it remained unreleased on video until a couple of months ago, when fortunately it was 'rescued' and released on DVD by the Brazilian distributor 'Versátil', specialized in masterpieces such as Fellini, Rosselini and Visconti. Now I have just had the chance to watch again this weird and daring movie about the decay of the society of consumption, empty and compulsive, searching for "sex and food" (material goods) much more than they need. The main characters use their Christian names. This movie is also a great black humor comedy. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "A Comilança" ("The Binge")
Plot summary
Four middle-aged friends and members of the professional bourgeoisie, Ugo, a chef and restaurant owner, Marcello, an incorrigible womanizer and Alitalia pilot, Michel, a delicate television producer, and Philippe, a venerable magistrate, gather for a debaucherous weekend at the latter's Parisian villa. There, as the four men prepare for a Romanesque feast, truckloads of fine food and wine arrive, accompanied by three elegant and lithe prostitutes. Without a doubt, the rapacious and degraded hedonists are determined to eat themselves to death, one elaborate morsel after another, nevertheless, for what reason?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
A Disturbing, Impressive and Unforgettable Movie
A Strange Film To Say the Least
A group of men hire some prostitutes and go to a villa in the countryside. There, they engage in group sex and resolve to eat themselves to death.
The film was somewhat controversial upon its original release with its scatological humor and comic depictions of sex and over-eating. This seems like something you might expect from Bunuel, mixed in a bit with "120 Days of Sodom" (or "Salo"). Not as gross, of course, but it seems to come from the same sort of feeling.
I have no idea what was going on in France / Italy in the 1970s to make such strange films. I understand Bunuel's criticism of the bourgeoisie, as he had more or less always had a left-leaning streak of satire in him that came to the forefront later on. But here? If it is satire, it is much more obscure.
Food For Thought
This is one for the Pseuds Circuit by virtue of the fact that it is possible to 'read' virtually anything into it. With no plot to speak of it's just a voyeuristic trip as we watch four middle aged men literally eat themselves to death. They are described as friends but there is no back story to explain what a judge, an airline pilot, a chef and a man in the media have in common and on what basis they would form 1) a friendship and 2, a suicide pact. As long as we're tossing questions around we might also ask WHY four such disparate men should make such a decision and what, if any, provision they left for any relatives involved. For that matter we could also ask why actors of the calibre of Philippe Noiret, Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi and Marcello Mastroianni thought this was a career enhancer.