... Surprisingly, the world of cinema is arranged - actors who better stay away from the cinema stubbornly climb on the screen, at the same time, those who seem to be in the family written to be the face of cinema, shun it like fire. Who am I talking about, you ask? Well, of course – Johnny Holliday (aka Jean-Philippe Leo Sme) – who of course is primarily known as a singer and composer. Can you name another Frenchman with a more masculine appearance, who would shoot so little and almost would not play “heroes”?
My deep conviction that the success of, say, A. Delon and his numerous roles as policemen and bandits in the 70s and 80s were due to a simple fact was practically the only Frenchman whose nose did not make the audience want to laugh. Now imagine Johnny Holliday in his place. I think in most cases he would not have to play anything at all, and as in the old joke, it would have been enough just to walk.
However, Holliday was filmed criminally little. I don't know the reasons for this neglect. Maybe he didn’t have much desire or time. The second is more likely to explain the nearly two dozen platinum-only albums and more than 400 tours over a 40-year career. Numerous flashings in the episodes in the role of “myself” are not worth mentioning, and there were practically no big roles, especially those that could fully use its texture.
In 1985, we were all lucky. Gosta-Gavras – the director is very famous, caustic and ironic, took the same Holliday in the role that is simply written for him – in the role of a “bear cubs” who came out of prison, who takes up the old. And let you not be confused that this is a comedy - the best French crime films were shot from time immemorial in this genre.
So what do we have besides Holliday: charmingly domesticated? Fanny Ardan as a wife, with mixed feelings waiting for the return of her husband “from there”, a teenage son at a critical age, who the second half of his life the father did not see and who was all this time sure that “dad is in the hospital”. And finally, an accomplice uncle, performed by a purely comic actor Guy Marchand, who was just called upon to shade the overflowing charisma of Holliday, which he successfully did.
In general, there are quite a lot of films with a similar plot, as a rule, most of them focus on careful preparation and carrying out the robbery itself, which in the case of a comedy since the days of Monichelliev’s “Intruders...” ends in complete collapse due to some ridiculous accident. However, there are films in which the main thing is not the robbery itself and crime as such, but relationships in the family circle. This category includes the Family Council. Well, the ending and its social, so to speak, context add to the soft irony of Costa Gavras and the discreet, but as always wonderful music of Georges Delereu a little serious component.