The Thousands

Yolande Moreau knocked us on our derrières at Sommerville three weeks back in the title role of peasant painter Séraphine. Moreau proves her magnifique-ness once more in French/Belgian offering Louise-Michel.

When a group of factory workers are laid-off by their tricky boss, they decide to pool their severance Euros to have him whacked. Louise (Moreau) volunteers to track down a hit-man, but can only find the meek security-guard Michel (Bouli Lanners). Sure he’s a dolt, but what he does have is an arsenal of homemade hand-cannons (replete with backyard firing-range!) so shit is on.

Moreau dominates the screen – literally. She behemoths about like a Neanderthal and speaks like this:”talk like Yoda, I do”. It’s little surprise that Louise turns out to be an ex-jailbird and a dude! But Michel doesn’t mind because he/she is actually…Cathy. Of course, things go awry when Louise and Michel start recruiting the terminally ill to do the ‘hits’ – everyone but the boss now seems to be at risk.

Louise-Michel is the type of absurd French comedy that works perfectly under the pines. It’s bawdy, brisk and bladder-friendly.