Life is a Long Quiet River

 

The facade of the American nuclear family was a common target for black comedies in the '80s.  Raising Arizona mocked the lengths people go to achieve it, Heathers revealed its hilarious hypocrisy, and Parents suspected the family unit was eating itself alive...quite literally!  Even across the pond, the "me" decade was popping up as a source of socially conscious ridicule in films like the ironically titled Life is a Long, Quiet River (1988), the debut feature from French director Etienne Chatiliez.

 

In a mean-spirited act of romantic revenge, a nurse switches the identities of two babies at birth, with dramatic consequences when the truth is revealed twelve years later.  Momo (Benoit Magimel) has been living in squalor with a slothful family of sluts, miscreants and criminals: the Groseilles.  Meanwhile, Bernadette (Valerie Lalande) is a member of the Le Quesnoy family, a wealthy, well-adjusted gaggle of social climbers happily enjoying their carefree bourgeois existence.  

 

After the big reveal, rather than "swap" children, the Le Quesnoy's pay for the privilege of adopting Momo into their home, keeping the truth from Bernadette to keep the family unit intact.  But cracks begin to show once Momo uses the skills for subterfuge he picked up on the streets.  Soon the Le Quesnoy children are smoking, drinking, screwing, and rebelling against the system that's kept them so comfortably repressed.  

 

Director / co-writer Etienne Chatiliez strikes a brilliant balance between social criticism and quirky witticism, taking pity on rich and poor alike.  It may sound like broad comedy, but Life is a Long, Quiet River shares the blame equally, which means everyone is fair game.   Nature versus nurture comes into play early, with Bernadette treated like a pariah even before her true identity is revealed.  Yet Momo sees only opportunity in the situation, a chance to have the best of both worlds.

 

So is the destruction of the Le Quesnoy's happy family life a comedy or a tragedy?  The films morality is cleverly encapsulated when one of the children consoles his frazzled mother by saying, "Life is not supposed to be a long, quiet river.  We're meant to suffer."  The Le Quesnoy's family bonds are broken, the Groseilles just go shopping.  Take from that what you will.  

 

Arrow Film's new Blu-ray includes new English subtitles, lengthy archival interviews with director Etienne Chatiliez, actor Andre Wilms, co-writer Florence Quentin and producer Charles Gassot, plus a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film.

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