Before I watch the movie, I knew that I'm gonna think a lot to understand the concept of the movie as I knew I'm watching a surreal. As I've watched some of David Lynch's movies and realized the meaning of the symbols and what they represent by reading some reviews, I searched for this one too. But I disagree with most of them. Those reviews were just trying to make all the non-sense things in the movie somehow believable and natural; A simple social class difference and a strange love between poor and rich. But what about all those symbolic actions? The silence of the cannibal fishermen and the curiosity of the Van Peteghems. Delightful flight of Isabelle and flying run of the Aude? Why does the inspector gets blown up more when he fails to figure things out? Here are my opinions:

Ma Loute behaves himself when he is about to eat someone and prevents any damage to the ones he loves. He searches for a charm in his colorless life and tries to keep it. Meanwhile the Van Peteghems are drowning through the charm that Andre is tired of the awesome view to the bay_Meanwhile the growth of a plant amazes him_. Ma Loute's parents are used to living colorless and meaningless so they stick to the way they've been living for their whole life.

Billie, the boy that actually tries to be a girl and acts like he is really a girl dressing like the boys, tries to escape who he is. Or maybe it's because he is an ordinary transsexual.

His mother Aude is someone who worships the beauty, concerns too much and feels guilty because Billie's father is either her father or her brother. She loves and hates Billie at the same time and maybe that's why Billie doesn't like to be himself.

Andre seems to be the wisest through them. He has some more valuable thoughts. But he can't think right about many simple things and it doesn't bother him at all. If you call all the elements just non-sense, at least you can count them as the characters points of view_There's plenty of them in the movie!_.

Christian is so weird as he acts like a dumb. He is kinda optimist and perhaps that's why he acts dumb. He likes almost everything and has no problem with most of the things but some, such as having trouble by being hugged by everyone but his sister. He has some precious conceptual dialogues which questions the way of his thinking. Is he really a fool or just can't behave himself?!

Isabelle who tries to find peace in every moment _while she can get over nervous easily_ and loves her family is symbol of a saint person. Flying over the Mary's statue might prove that.

The Inspectors and the soldiers are dump too. Their job is to figure things out but that's what they can't even think about. Machin is the boss and Malfoy obeys in any situation. He has no creativity on his own and easily gets convinced by Machin's ideas.

Machin gets blown up every time he fails to solve a mystery_but finally he is announced as the hero_ and finally flies because he becomes a balloon! Then everybody try to save their hero. He gets shot and survives. I don't know what does it represent.

Nadage is jealous. But mostly jealous of poor Ma Loute and Billie's love, not any of the high class things. She knows what she wants. She doesn't look above her head. She has nothing special but Ma Loute finally chose her as she didn't lied to him. Ma Loute didn't want Billie's fortune either. He was a lover, trying to make a change. He is used to his alley and doesn't need more.

The movie has a great idea but the director failed to symbolize everything in the way we enjoy discovering the codes and that's why I rated the movie like this.

That's actually all I understood from this surreal. You might disagree but it might help you figure mysteries out and prevents you to fly as a balloon!

P.S: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/bruno-dumonts-self-surpassing-inventiveness-in-slack-bay This is the only link I found useful.

M.M.J.M

Binoche drags this movie down. Most of the other participants, especially Luchini, manage to actually be funny, while she does a tone-deaf pantomime and kind of walks all over everyone else whenever she's in a scene. The misanthropy that permeated 'Li'l Quinquin' is also present here, with Dumont seeming to say that everywhere you turn, you run into idiots. The poor are barely human at all, the middle class is a bunch of bumbling idiots, while the "upper" class is delusional and degenerate. Some of the cinematography is quite beautiful, with an almost 3D quality to it.

Bruno Dumont made a Bruno Dumont film in his original region with real inhabitants. Like Li'l Quinquin, some actors are amateurs, some are pros, sadly...

There is no real plot here, no story. Just some days in the North of the France in the 1910's. There are some poetry, comedy, but all of the film is made by the situation of the actors, amateur or pro. The professional are to overdo : Binoche and Luchini are sometimes good, often to much, and so bad... The amateurs voices are always hard to understand, even if your are french. Maybe with the subtitle will be better.

I like this film, the photo are not so good (first film for the director in digital) the colors are usually blurry. There is no real story, the actors are inaudible or to overdo, it's hard to understand, the end are (for me ) not good... But ... i like it ! It's funny, shabby, unhealthy, beautiful, full of love, with no mockery. The director like is region, the people from there (like the Redneck in the USA) and made fun with their reputations. It's a little jewel of burlesque, like a Belgian film.

It's a unusual film, don't except a traditional thing. Take It As It Comes.