Eating Raoul

Les Bland, un couple sans prétention incarné par Paul Bartel et Mary Woronov, découvrent un moyen peu conventionnel pour récolter des fonds afin d’ouvrir leur propre restaurant. Pour ce faire, ils entreprennent de profiter du déclin moral des habitants de Los Angeles. Un film très divertissant mené par son duo d’acteurs central et la réalisation subtile de Bartel. Je suis juste un peu surpris qu’après sa sortie, les autorités américaines n’aient pas instauré de licence d’armes pour les poêles à cuire ! Dommage qu’Eating Raoul soit passé pratiquement inaperçu de notre côté de la planète et qu’il n’ait pas plus la cote. (21/04/2018)

Though the Roger Corman-produced Death Race 2000 remains unsurpassed as Bartel’s most entertaining, most biting and most timeless satire, his own independent project, Eating Raoul, is still a magnificently vicious piece of work. Inspired by the Ealing studio’s classic comedies, the film is reminiscent of John Waters’ later work, especially Serial Mom, in the way that it makes fun of its middle-class characters, conservatism, the American dream and, for that matter, the bizarreness of California. As the title suggests, the film unfolds mainly as a straightforward joke that does not aim to surprise or shock viewers, but rather to simply caustically incite and indecorously entertain them. In this respect, it accurately captures the personality of Bartel himself, who, unlike Waters, did not pander to bottom-dwelling tastelessness, but rather delighted in mocking conventionality, intrinsic amorality, concealed licentiousness and mainstream physicality with gourmet distinction. The filmmaker then takes the movie on his shoulders even in front of the camera, where he delivers another of his wonderfully restrained performances in completely absurd roles. As always, he is ably supported by the excellent Mary Woronov, with whom he formed an iconic duo in a number of bizarre pearls at the bottom of the trough of American low-budget trash cinema. (13/03/2021)