Paradis pour Tous |
France • 1982 • 110m •
   • Directed by: Alain Jessua. • Starring: Patrick Dewaere, Jacques Dutronc, Fanny Cottençon, Stéphane Audran, Patrice Kerbrat, Jeanne Goupil, Caroline Berg, Pierre Hatet, Stéphane Bouy, Francis Lemaire, Thalie Frugès, Anna Gaylor, Nicole Gueden. • Music by: René Koering, Costin Miereaunu.     Doctor Valois has invented the "flashage", a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody's happy except may be Alain's wife, Jeanne, who's worrying about the changes in Alain's personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois's happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the overstability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realizes he can't stop the process, he decides to "flash" himself.
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Review:
A miserable insurances rep (Dewaere)tries to commit suicide:then he is cured by the doctor and he becomes "happy".Always smiling,always even-tempered,he tastes a brand new life,and is highly successful in his job .Little by little,we understand something is wrong with this "paradis pour tous".The other people cannot stand these happy people (Leotard's character).Under his smile,Dewaere hides a terrifying insensitivity.Quite legally,he "helps" his mother-in-law and his colleague to die "properly".These beaming zombies recall sometimes the "new" people in "invasion of the body snatchers".
The movie is not always successful though:there are clichés like the exasperating mother-in -law(played by a miscast Stephane Audran,the famous heroine of "Babettes gaetesbud").But Dewaere finds here one of his best parts.Sadly ,it was to be his last movie:he committed suicide a few months after;sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction.
NB:Compare with Jessua's earlier "Traitement de choc",about the body!This one deals with the mind.
Review by dbdumonteil from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database