The title of this French film by idiosyncratic director Bertrand Blier translates as 'Thanks Life' as if said with a 'Gee' in front of it to express one's disgust with the world. It's said initially by a young woman in a bridal gown who has been dumped from a car by the roadside and who is being beaten up by her current boyfriend. When she (actress Anouk Grinberg) is found and taken home (on her wheelbarrow) by younger actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, the unlikely friendship begins between the sexually wise Grinberg and the naive but willing Gainsbourg.
However this is just the jumping off point for a tale that moves between periods -- much of the second half takes place before Gainsbourg's birth and during the Second World War, even 'though she is there as an observer, and much of the action occurs during the making of a movie called "Life", where Grinberg is an actress, as are Gainsbourg's parents, so the viewer soon stops looking for a linear plot or the divide between reality and the imaginary. Add to this a number of familiar faces in the cast, foremost of whom is Gerard Depardieu as an immoral doctor using Grinberg to spread her sexual disease to the entire town in order for him to prosper. This is a consistently interesting film insofar as one can never be too sure where it is going, full of bizarre action, but I could understand some viewers being put off by both its randomness and its occasional bad taste.
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