“This is a real blow to the head”: this comedy with a famous TV presenter was a big failure in the cinema

“Zack, a comic book artist, rejects the memory of his father, who died 25 years ago, but can’t help but make him the main character of his boards. The idea of ​​creating a family is the main nightmare for him. So he only has affairs with married women and mothers. It was then that he discovered a letter written by his father on the eve of his death, where he learned that he would not become a father until the age of 33, before impotence.“

This is a synopsis of the romantic comedy A Woman Very, Very, Very In Love, in which lead Nagy starred opposite Christiana Real in 1997, a comedy that has been forgotten to the point of being almost unwatchable today.

After the criticism of his previous film, Le Nombril du monde, a drama inspired by the story of his mother, who condemns the female portraits of North African countries through four portraits of women, director Ariel Zeitoun, wounded, decides this time to live a radically different life. project.

“When I saw women criticizing while completely missing the point of the film In my head, I messed up a bit. The other side of my feminism was speaking and I told myself these women are lyingThe director explained to BFMTV. saying that his mother had “Maybe he lied too“, he writes A very, very, very loving woman. “All this got mixed up in my head and I told myself that I wanted to write a film a lie And that it will be a lie of the mother.“

Since then, the premise of the film is clear: the letter the hero supposedly receives from his father is actually a lie from his mother to force her son to live a different life: “She is a mother which creates lies. I think they are manipulating us. A woman very, very, very much in love wanted to tell this story. This is the manipulation of a naive boy who believes what his mother tells him.“

Mixing genres and creating desireAliens,, The filmmaker even introduces cartoon-style gags in his film, for example, when the hero gets an anvil on his head as a sign of shock. Finally, he concludes: “UAliens are an element that has no place. So maybe I made a movie that didn’t belong.“

Danny Boone or Nagui

to participate in his film Ariel ZeitounAlso found his perfect candidate. After discovering Danny Boon on the stage, he really wanted him for the film, but France Télévisions refused, the actor was not famous enough.

during this time, Nagui Interested in the project. And despite M6’s reluctance to doubt him, Ariel Zeitoun He allows himself to be convinced: “ I said: Nagui, are you sure? Because if you take him because he’s the biggest TV host, in that case, you have to take my brother Michel because he’s bigger than Nagui!’“

But the director is firm: “For me, Nagui was very well suited to a character that was really a very, very whimsical character. Nagui is like that.“If Nagui hesitates, “It’s normal“, he continues Ariel Zeitoun. “I was also hesitant.“

however, Nagui Surprises the director and everything together. However, things went wrong as soon as the film’s release approached: the distributors didn’t like it.

“They tell me it’s not good, no one laughs. When they don’t care about a movie, they release it on bad dates to get it out of theaters quickly.“

Then there is the failure to match the bad reviews: only two reviews from viewers can be found on our site: and he talks about “Pollution of cinema”, all for a 1.6 out of 5 rating…

In total, only 47,808 people will go to the theaters. “It’s a real blow to the head. We had a feeling of injustice“, he explained Ariel Zeitoun. “When we read the first day’s notes, we didn’t know what to say. We knew that the film would be released in theaters the following week. It was catastrophic. That’s several years of dust in one fell swoop. It is very difficult to live with him. But hey, it’s true, we were wrong.“

and since then Nagui He literally refuses to talk about it:I think he doesn’t want to talk about it, but I don’t know why“, he explained Ariel ZeitounStill on BFMTV. “He might say he hates it, but at the same time I can understand why he doesn’t say anything I emphasized this period when we shot the film.“

Second wind and fade away

Although the film enjoyed minor success and was briefly reborn on several television channels in the late 1990s, it is now impossible to find—or nearly so: it’s only available on VHS, has never been released on DVD, and isn’t. Not available on streaming or VOD platforms.

however, Ariel Zeitoun Don’t regret anything: “Obviously, I told myself that a lot of things could be better, but at the same time, I said that it was quite inflated. The story is funny, crazy, and tells a lot about male/female relationships that we wouldn’t be able to today. I don’t regret doing it. at all.“

He’s even planning to re-release the film on TV this year, he told BFMTV, which has acquired its remaster rights through EuropaCorp, just for the remake.Live or live a little“The movie. “I’ve seen worse on TV, so I hope we can find slots.“

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