WESTERN (1997)

Some of the most original movies coming out of France today are set far from pretty Paris. In this shambling, low-concept road comedy from Manuel Poirier (which won the 1997 Special Jury Prize at Cannes), the romantically desolate coastal landscape of Brittany is as much a leading character as the Catalonian traveling shoe salesman (Sergi Lopez) who, through movie happenstance, meets up with a scrawny Russian hitchhiker (Sacha Bourdo). The two are unlikely compadres -- no Hope and Crosby, no Thelma and Louise, just a couple of average guys walking, talking, and looking for the love of good women. (To meet candidates, they go door-to-door posing as pollsters asking women what they want in an ideal man.) But Peruvian-born Poirier establishes an attractive, believable friendship between the immigrants. And, with a nice feel for deadpan but empathetic humor, he creates a vivid study in psychic dislocation and cheerful human adaptability.

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