Very Happy Alexander

Alexandre, worked without pause on a country farm, makes a decision after his wife's sudden death: he will not work any more. He gets into bed and does not get up. His dog does the shopping, and the town cannot bear it, because one man doing nothing irritates everyone who works. The film is not interested in laziness. It is interested in the pressure of the work ethic: Alexandre harms nobody, he simply does not produce, and the town treats that as a threat. The film says this through gentle comedy, but its target is clear. The form is rural and slow: fields, long afternoon sleeps, little dialogue. Vladimir Cosma's music sets the rhythm. Yves Robert directed. Philippe Noiret leads and plays most of the part in bed, barely speaking; Marlène Jobert plays the woman who tries to get him up again. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties French comedy and rural humour. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events. The film is deliberately uneventful and stays on a single idea for a hundred minutes.