La Grande Bouffe

Description

Marco Ferreri's greatest international success, "La Grande Bouffe" scandalized audiences when it was released in 1973. Audiences were shocked by its tale of four world-weary middle-aged men (superbly portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret) who decide to gorge themselves to death in one final orgiastic weekend full of gourmet food, call girls and a hefty, lusty schoolteacher. This blackly humorous parable of modern society's collapse won the Cannes Film Festival's International Critics Award. The New York Times called it "vulgar vaudeville on an epic scale...a mordant, chilling, hilarious dirty movie." Nearly 30 years later, it continues to challenge audiences' sensibilities and test the limits of shockability.

Customer Reviews:

Sex and gluttony! .......2005-12-23

A small group composed by well definite personages, (linked by their Epicurean approach) each one of them representing a symbol of power and notorious status in the society - a judge, a chef, a pilot, a TV producer and a female school teacher join for a gastronomic weekend in a Parisian home. This great plentiful repast will be complemented by an unexpected guest: The Death' s Angel.

What it going to come will be certainly one of the most impressive portraits of degradation and decadence ever seen in the screen until this date.

An admirable metaphor of the boring and the lack of illusions to live.

Flatulence Fantasique!.......2004-03-28

You will never forget seeing this movie. Like another reviewer I have carried images from this film in my mind for decades. It's not that it's a great movie, there have been better "food" movies - but nothing that has the black humor and the joyful vulgarity of this one. Philippe Noiret's infantile Judge is a wonderful performance and the entire cast holds nothing back. Philippe Sarde's haunting theme is superb - especially in the death by flatulence scene. Funny, farcical and oddly thoughtful beneath the somewhat contrived artiness that is French filmmaking of the 1970's.

There can be only one........2001-10-11

Some movies sear an image into your brain for ever. Like the end of "The Wild Bunch" or the beginning of Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West" - "Looks like we're shy one horse". "No, you brought two too many".

I saw "La Grand Bouffe" over 20 years ago. I still have the image in my mind of the guy eating the two blancmanges at the end of the picture before he dies.

This movie is surreal, bizarre and wonderful. If we go to movies to see images and things we have never seen before, then this movie is spectacularly successful.

There is no greater movie about food and death.

One of the most provocative movies of all times.......2001-02-25

I like this movie for its outrageousness and its ability to combine an allegoric vision and a creeping reality: what are we doing with our lives? Where will this boredom of modern living lead us to? The idea of four friends engaging in an all-out "Grande Abbufatta" (the original title in Italian) is quite a perceptive allegory of what happened to the so-called Western civilization as a whole. It seems it has nowhere to go but to a formidable blow-out since its very beginning...

I'm not a big fan of Marco Ferreri's work. I think he was quite irregular in his output, but when he hit the mark he was simply second to none. For me, this "La Grande Bouffe" and "L'Ape Regina" ("The Queen Bee" or "The Conjugal Bed", 1963, with Ugo Tognazzi and Marina Vlady) are among the best examples of black comedy ever to be given us by filmmakers anywhere in the world. His choice of actors couldn't be better: Mastroianni, Piccoli, Noiret and Tognazzi will be forever among the greatest in this trade, and in "La Grande Bouffe" all of them give us one of the finest of their efforts ever.

I was very happy when I knew this movie was being released on DVD because I had seen it twice in movie theaters: in 1978 (the Italian-spoken version) and in 1981 (the French-spoken version, the one on this DVD). I was hoping the DVD version would bring both. I was quite disappointed to see that it brings only the French-spoken version, with English subtitles. It would have added much more to my pleasure if this DVD version of "La Grande Bouffe" would come with both Italian- and French-spoken versions, and also with Italian and French - besides English - subtitles.

If I'm not mistaken, it's possible to do this with any DVD (if not, please correct me), for I have many DVDs at home with a choice of several languages on the audio tracks and an equally wide variety of subtitles' choice. Also, the music that Philippe Sarde wrote for this movie has haunted me since the very first time I saw "La Grande Bouffe". I have been hunting for this movie's music all over the world to no avail for decades now (can anyone out there help me on that? Was this music ever issued on tapes, LPs or CDs anywhere?). I was hoping that on DVD they would provide us also with a choice of hearing this sensuous and intriguing music without the dialogues, but this too was denied to us viewers.

For these two reasons only (lack of a wider choice of languages and subtitles, and lack of a separate track for the music) I don't give this DVD a 5-star rating.

little known but glorious.......2000-12-13

Once in awhile you see a film that makes you rejoice with awe and pleasure; this is just such a film. A celebration of life in 24 dashing hours, Grand Bouffe portrays a hedonistic reunion of four old friends in the grandest style. A beautiful and thoughtful examination of aging and, ultimately, mortality underlines what is otherwise a touching and very amusing romp through all the delights of the senses. Mastroianni is only one of a truly talented crew of actors whose poignant portrayals mold the wonderful script into a delightful and humanistic work of cinematic art. See this film.

The Grande Bouffe (La Grande Bouffe) (Blow-Out) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]

Average customer rating:

The Grande Bouffe (La Grande Bouffe) (Blow-Out) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Director: Marco Ferreri
Manufacturer: Noveaux Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital Stereo), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SYNOPSIS: Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life -- a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) -- but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life's pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes). SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu,

La Grande Bouffe (Original French ONLY Version - NO Subtitles)

Average customer rating:

La Grande Bouffe (Original French ONLY Version - NO Subtitles)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000CQ6EQQ

Product Description

Four successful middle-aged men Marcello, a pilot; Michel, a television executive; Ugo, a chef; and, Philippe, a judge go to Philippe's villa to eat themselves to death. After the first night, Marcello insists that women should join them. Three prostitutes make it through a day or two; Andrea, a local school teacher, stays to the end. The villa, the food, and a Bugati roadster are essential props.

Blow-Out / La Grande bouffe / Bolshaya zhratva

Average customer rating:

Blow-Out / La Grande bouffe / Bolshaya zhratva
Director: Marco Ferreri
Manufacturer: ART
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

LANGUAGE(s): FRENCH, RUSSIAN.

ASIN: B000VU2ELM

La Grande Bouffe / The Grande Bouffe (Russian Import - PAL DVD)

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La Grande Bouffe / The Grande Bouffe (Russian Import - PAL DVD)
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni , Michel Piccoli , Philippe Noiret , Ugo Tognazzi , and Andrea Ferreol
Director: Marco Ferreri
Manufacturer: Film Prestige
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Product Features:

- Film Prestige Collection
- Deluxe Digipak

ASIN: B000AV16PW

Product Description

NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES!!! This is Russian, PAL DVD release (WILL NOT PLAY ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER). Available audio tracks: original DD 2.0 ITALIAN and DD 2.0 RUSSIAN. ATTENTION: PAL is European video standard which WILL NOT play on regular R1 DVD player (multisystem PAL/NTSC compatible DVD player required). Please, get familiar with all details about DVD video standards to avoid any misunderstandings............................................................. SYNOPSIS: Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life's pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes).

Average customer rating:

La Grande Bouffe

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Product Features:

Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt).
Requires multi-system DVD player in the US.

ASIN: 8388602373

Product Description

Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life's pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes).

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