CLOSING NIGHT, THE LIGHTER SIDE

C'est la vie!

Le sens de la fête

OLIVIER NAKACHE, ÉRIC TOLEDANO
France, 2017
117 minutes, Color
Official website

From the directors of international sensation The Intouchables (Closing Night, FFDC 2012) comes the biggest party of the year. Max Angely (Jean-Pierre Bacri, The Taste of Others) is an aging, beleaguered caterer who hopes to sell his business any day now. But first, he has to get through one last minefield of a dinner party, a high-profile wedding at a seventeenth-century French chateau just outside of Paris. And if anything can go wrong, everything will go wrong: The photographer yells at any guest who dares to use a cameraphone in his space; the hastily-hired DJ keeps making up lyrics to very popular songs; the waiters refuse to wear their ridiculous, period-piece valet costumes and unhygienic powdered wigs; and somebody may be trying to sabotage the meat. On top of everything, Max is navigating a romantic relationship with one of his employees even though he has yet to leave his estranged wife. As a hectic day moves into a treacherous night, Max must do his best to keep everything "sober, chic, and elegant" while the specter of an audit looms over his less-than-legal business practices. Not content with being solely a slapstick ensemble comedy, C'est la Vie! dips into themes of class, race, and capitalism with skill, cleverly whipping it all up into an irresistible confection. —Seattle International Film Festival

In French with English subtitles

1st Screening: 3:00 PM - followed by a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 PM
2nd Screening: 7:30 PM - preceded by a reception from 6:30 to 7:30 PM