Themes: Sexual Awakening, Crumbling Marriages, Love Triangles
Main Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Carole Laure, Riton Liebman, Michel Serrault, Elenore Hirt
Release Year: 1978
Country: FR/BE
Run Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The lightly mocking title Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez Vos Mouchoirs) sets the tone for this Bertrand Blier-directed amalgam of the sentimental and sardonic. Gérard Depardieu plays an at-wit's-end husband, Raoul, who'll go to any lengths to sexually satisfy his wife, Solange (Carole Laure). Raoul decides that the best thing to cure Solange's boredom would be if she took a lover; thus, he chooses Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere) for the "job." But Stéphane isn't any more successful in arousing Solange than her husband had been. Eventually, it is a 13-year-old boy who quenches Solange's erotic yearnings. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar as well as a French César award for Best Score (by Georges Delerue). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A key plot point of Get Out Your Handkerchiefs -- the affair between the leading lady and a 13-year-old boy -- is sure to alienate many viewers, who will be made extremely uncomfortable by the moral questions it raises. Those able to get past this not-inconsiderable obstacle, however, will find Handkerchiefs very funny, engrossing, and thought-provoking. The underage sexual situation is more palatable when one accepts Handkerchiefs as a satire and as a symbolic exploration of Freudian conflicts among the male sex. (The fact that only a child can provide the adult woman with the total companionship she is seeking says a great deal about the basic emotional immaturity of the adult men in the film.) Handkerchiefs features a great deal of well-written, often raunchy, dialogue and a number of excellent sequences (such as the opening restaurant scene and the segment in which the boy is asked by his friends about his experiences with sex), and is quite flavorful throughout. Bertrand Blier's direction is lively, and the performances -- especially from a young Gérard Depardieu -- are excellent. Viewers willing to meet Get Out Your Handkerchiefs on its own terms will be rewarded by this wry yet sentimental comedy. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Sylvie Joly - Passerby; Jean Rougerie - Mr. Beloeil; Gilberte Geniat; André Lacombe; Liliane Rovere; André Thorent; Michel Beaune; David Gabison; Roger Riffard
Credit
Eric Moulard - Art Director, Michele Cerf - Costume Designer, Bertrand Blier - Director, Claudine Merlin - Editor, Georges Delerue - Composer (Music Score), Monique Archambault - Makeup, Jean Penzer - Cinematographer, Paul Claudon - Producer, Georges Dancigers - Producer, Alexandre Mnouchkine - Producer, Jean-Pierre Ruh - Sound/Sound Designer, Bertrand Blier - Dialogue Writer, Bertrand Blier - Screenwriter, Georges Valon - Production Director, Eric Moulard - Set Decorator, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Featured Music, Franz Schubert - Featured Music
Solange (Laure) is depressed and sick. Friends and neighbors are convinced she needs a child. Her husband enlists the help of another man as her lover, Stéphane (Dewaere), in hopes of getting her pregnant. He fails to cheer her up or impregnate her. The three open a summer camp for children where Solange meets 13 year-old Christian (Liebman). Christian cheers her up, becomes her lover, and fathers a child by her.
