Called “Never Admit” in the original French, Riviera Revenge is a delightfully silly, droll comedy from the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2025 directed by Ivan Calbérac, set amongst breathtaking scenery in the Nicoise coastline and in sunbathed, colour saturated villas. Every scene in this movie is inviting in its own right.
Starring André Dussolier alongside Sabinee Azéma and Thierry Lhermitte.
Francois, a retired ex-military general who adjusted to civilian life by bringing army discipline to his household, finds the foundations of his life eroded beneath his feet after he discovers his wife, Annie, had a passionate affair forty years ago.
Unable to take it on the chin, he sets off to the riverside town where they grew up to exact his revenge upon homewrecker Boris. Annie insists upon accompanying him lest he do anything profoundly stupid. “Desole”…
What ensues is a very strange, romantic, and funny journey, also wistful and moving at moments. How very French.
I struggled to get into this film at first, thinking that Annie was a bit too much of a heartless cold fish and Francois painfully bland even as he peers over his Napoleonic diorama while fending off his wife’s about face apology after realising feigning sheer ignorance wouldn’t cut it. She’s a crusty liar and he’s a naive obtuse conservative in a nation that is famed for romance. There’s also some awkward cutting between scenes, convenient logic gaps, and loose ends that interrupted my enjoyment of the story.
Turns out Annie’s side dish (oh yes, they do find him) and the couple’s children with their fragile complexity won me over after a bit and I started to enjoy the proceedings.
The deeply individual, layered characters add warmth and humanity to the story and reveal depth in our otherwise stoic, grumpy protagonist. “Affirmative!”
6 out of 10 stars from me
Riviera Revenge will be showing at Luna Cinemas soon.
Watch it for a bit of fun and don’t think too carefully
By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!
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