A few weeks back we posted a fantastic clip from dryly absurd French comedy Mammuth in which star Gerard Depardieu berates a grocery store deli clerk for not showing a proper respect from ham and now we're back with more. The full trailer has arrived and it does nothing but build on the promise of that original clip. Some very funny stuff here, delivered in a pleasingly understated way that comes off almost like Gondry or Jonze on valium. Here's the official synopsis:
Check the trailer below!
As he turns 60, a working-class man takes his retirement. Hard at work since the age of 16, he has never missed a day, never gone sick.
When he tries to claim his well-deserved retirement pension, he runs into the implacable wall of bureaucracy. It turns out that several of his former employers have "forgotten" to declare his earnings. To receive full benefits, his only solution is to go back to them and gather the missing affadavits.
Encouraged by his wife, our hero mounts his old motorcycle from the 70s, a Mammuth which gave him his nickname. He returns to the places of his youth, a journey that brings him back into company with former employers, friends, and long-lost family members.
On the road, he comes to realize that people have always considered him an uncultivated imbecile. Submerged in doubt, haunted by ghostly appearances of Yasmine, his first love lost in a dramatic motorcycle accident, his quest to recuperate the missing papers, little by little, becomes futile.
Salvation comes to him from his young niece, who awakens the happy poet that lies dormant inside him. Instead of aging slowly towards death, Mammuth decides to embrace life with a new beginning.
Check the trailer below!