This film, LE PAYS BLEU (THE BLUE COUNTRY), is a thoroughly delightful film about many 'wacky' and eccentric people who live in an extremely remote French village in the hills, back in the 1970s. The film was written and directed by Jean-Charles Tacchella (born 1925, hence he is now aged 92), who is French, despite his Italian surname. He is best known outside of France for his film COUSIN COUSINE (1975). This film has never been reviewed for IMDb until now, which is a great pity, since if you want to laugh and feel good and have a love of France, this is the film for you. One of the leads is Brigitte Fossey, so well remembered as the six year-old child in FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952), and who has gone on to appear in 84 more films. She plays a free-spirited young woman who has fled Paris to 'go native'. She never seems less than cheerful, but until now she has not been able to hold onto a relationship. Can village life change her? Can she find true love amongst les paysans? Also appearing in this film is Albert Delpy, father of Julie Delpy, and what could be more appropriate, considering that the Delpy family themselves appear to have a reputation in Paris for being just as charmingly eccentric as the people in this film. Perhaps one reason why this film has so much to offer to us today is that so much of this joie de vivre and simplicity of life style has been lost over the forty years since this film was released. In 1977 there was no internet, there were no cell phones, and people had to relate to those around them. This film, seen now, serves as a reminder of what is already a lost way of life: life with real people instead of with today's myriads of virtual people. Watch and, between your bursts of laughter, weep for what is gone.
