Buffet Froid/Return of Martin Rating: Release Date: 26 October, 1999 Retail Price: $49.98 OUR Price: $44.99 You SAVE: $4.99! Cast: Gérard Depardieu Nathalie Baye Alain Delon Roger Pierre Complete Cast (9 total)

Buffet Froid/Return of Martin Reviews

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BEST SERVED COLD
The blackest of black comedies, Bertrand Blier's surreal "BUFFET FROID" (Fox Lorber,...), stars Depardieu as Alphonse, a jobless man who may or may not be a murderer and his relationships with his wife's killer, an oddball police inspector and other cynical misfits.

Very French in it's skewed perspective and very cold-hearted in its execution, this bizarre film is from the director of the shockingly funny "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" and the equally disturbing ugly love story "To Beautiful For You." When I first saw this movie it held my attention and I thought about it for days. Seeing it again, I recall that I never had emotional or intellectual closure. It's meaning escaped me and the subtext was unsettling. I was not enlightened about life but only allowed to share a dream where life is unpredictable, has no meaning and the attempt to seek answers is the first step in one's eventual downfall. Pretty cold servings to digest (hence the title?). Still, this singularly bizarre tale from 1979 is worth seeing. Maybe somewhere in this material is the key to David Lynch's "Mullholland Dr."

OFFBEAT AND BORING
Maybe I was tired when I view this French flick, and I admit it had interesting and well photographed scenes. I especially liked the opening scenes in the Metro.

Sure, there were Kafkaesque story lines. And a police inspector did not especially enforce the law, and there were a couple of surreal murder scenes sprinkled with a bit of zany dialogue. But it seemed really to be more like a dark cult film wannabe. I had just begun to think Georges Depardieu is an excellent actor (LES COMPERES, RETURN OF MARTIN GERE, and more recently JEAN DE FLORETTE) who made it in France, became popular in the USA and then Hollywood ruined him (like in that awful GREEN CARD). But this was Depardieu's movie in 1980 France. Well folks, he was pretty one dimensional throughout BUFFET FROID.

Yes, I think I did get the "dark humor." Yet BUFFET FROID managed to produce in me a bit of ennui.

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