Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Starring:GÃ©rard Depardieu, Carole Laure, Patrick Dewaere, Michel Serrault, ElÃ©onore Hirt, Jean Rougerie, Sylvie Joly, Riton Liebman, Liliane RovÃ¨re, Michel Beaune, Roger Riffard, AndrÃ© Thorent, AndrÃ© Lacombe, David Gabison, Gilberte GÃ©niat, Jean Perin, Bertrand De Hautefort, Philippe Brigaud
Director: Bertrand Blier
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

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Thoroughly safe and mild compared to Going Places--the anarchic, something-to-offend-everyone earlier collaboration of Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, and French director Bertrand Blier--the 1977 Get Out Your Handkerchiefs is an outwardly civilized satire with a heart so dark it's a wonder you can see the film's images. Depardieu plays the bellicose but well-meaning husband of a beautiful and depressed woman (Carole Laure) who wants to be pregnant but isn't. Hubby's solution to her woes is to talk another man (Dewaere), a complete stranger, into becoming her lover. When that fails to lift her spirits and fill her womb, the two men--both of them now slavishly devoted to the cult of her misery--bring in a boy (Riton) with whom Laure's character seems to be in perfect emotional synch. As with many of Blier's films, Handkerchiefs is an intellectually brutal but slaphappy variation on traditional comedies of manners. What makes this film a bit different was its obvious jibe at frothier French sex farces of the day (Yves Robert's Pardon Mon Affaire, for example, was released the same year) as well as then-contemporary adult comedy-dramas from the U.S. about the vicissitudes of relationships (Blume in Love, Kramer vs. Kramer). Seen in that context, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs looks like a wolf in sheep's clothing, though it isn't necessary to bring any context to Blier's acid wit. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

I liked it, but one of the oddest movies I have ever seen.......2007-06-29

To say that this movie is not for everybody would be putting it mildly. There are plenty of people who would label as perverse a movie which culminates in a 12-year-old prodigy seducing & impregnating a grown woman, and this would not be an unfair assessment.

And yet, one could say that the most perverse thing about this movie is that the humor works. Situations which should have left me appalled instead left me smiling & laughing, because when all is said & done, this is one well-crafted movie. One can argue whether the absurdity trumps the perversity, but noone can argue that this is an exceedingly well-made, well-acted production.

GREAT MOVIE.......2006-03-24

It was awonderful experience to watch this movie, first by myself and secondly with a few friends. We all ended discussing the contents, the scenes, the plot and everything that made that movie so interesting. I didn't expect less from Gerard Depardieu acting..Very entertaining and super..We all enjoyed it and cannot wait to watch another one in the same category..Still we want Gerad depardieu and his serious crew...Very good, very pleasant movie...

Funny but huh?.......2005-03-11

Gerard Depardieu is married to an unresponsive woman; thinking a lover might help cheer her up, he gets her one. When this doesn't work both men come to the conclusion that having a baby would do the trick. But this too fails. At end only a 14-year-old boy brings her out of the doldrums--and gets her pregnant. Highly improbable, but very funny. Won an Academy Award.

I am very confussed.......2002-05-13

Try as I might I will never understand french humor. Yes this movie was funny and yes the acting is excellent don't get me wrong but come on the whole 12 year old kid suducing a grown women thing??? I don't understand maybe I just don't think very deeply.

GOYH: Funny, Perceptive Film.......2002-05-06

Blier creates a world that illustrates what men really know about women: Nothing! Depardieu and Dewaere deliver two brilliant performances that seem like one. They are friends joined by their common ignorance about what goes on inside a woman's head. The final twist and their ultimate realization of the futility of their mission is satisfying, as well as the other comic situations. The film's charm is that the humor is wild, but somehow never goes completely over the top. I highly recommend this comic gem. I don't think Depardieu has ever been better, and Dewaere matches him perfectly.

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