Directed by Jacques Rozier • 1976 • France
Starring Pierre Richard, Maurice Risch, Jacques Villeret
Having set his first two features on seaside holidays, Jacques Rozier used the third, THE CASTAWAYS OF TURTLE ISLAND, to mock the tourist industry and the “going native” movement that was then increasing in popularity among Western vacationers. Things quickly go south when travel agents Jean-Arthur (Pierre Richard) and Joël (Maurice Risch) offer a fend-for-yourself getaway on a deserted island, with their agency making them accompany clients through deep jungle and across barely charted waters to reach a destination that could give Robinson Crusoe a run for his money. Joël enlists younger brother Bernard (Jacques Villeret) to go in his place, but Jean-Arthur isn’t so lucky, and soon devolves into a semimad purist who will settle for nothing less than the ultimate in survivalist adventure; meanwhile, a motley crew of sightseers becomes divided over how real this shipwreck holiday should be. Far ahead of its time in its satirical targets and its mixing of disparate narrative tones, TURTLE ISLAND is a hilarious comic send-up that could only have emerged from Rozier’s puckish imagination.
Up Next in Directed by Jacques Rozier
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Maine-Océan Express
Directed by Jacques Rozier • 1986 • France
Starring Bernard Ménez, Yves Afonso, Luis RegoBy land, by sea, by air . . . In Jacques Rozier’s quirkiest comedy, a Brazilian dancer’s (Rosa-Maria Gomes) invalid train ticket for a journey from Paris to Saint-Nazaire sparks a shaggy-dog story that enco...
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Fifi Martingale
Directed by Jacques Rozier • 2001 • France
Starring Jean Lefebvre, Lili Vonderfeld, Yves AfonsoJacques Rozier’s final film is a joyful compendium of his major themes and strategies as well as one of the funniest depictions of the theater ever committed to celluloid. When a director (Mike Marsha...
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Blue Jeans
Directed by Jacques Rozier • 1958 • France
Starring Rene Ferro, Francis De Peretti, Elisabeth KlarThis breezy portrait of two Vespa-riding seventeen-year-old boys cruising the Rivera in search of girls captures the spirit of callow youth and the scenic splendors of the Mediterranean summertime.
