Youssef Salem is successful: a comedy as intelligent as it is effective (review)
Baya Kasmi recounts the tribulations of a writer trapped by a success which tarnishes his family’s image, with an impeccable Ramzy Bedia.
Released at the very beginning of 2023 in cinemas, Youssef Salem is successful, by Baya Kasmi, with Ramzy Bedia, Noémie Lvovsky and Melha Bedia, arrives this evening on Canal +. It is also visible on Canal Play, and the editorial team recommends it. Here is our review.
The principle of political correctness is the demand for open-mindedness under the guise of conformism. Thus the protagonist of the new comedy by Baya Kasmi (I’m yours right away), Youssef, a writer whose latest largely autobiographical novel has met with unexpected success, is invited to the sets with the image of the son of immigrants from working-class neighborhoods slung over his shoulder. It would also seem that Youssef is perfectly soluble in this media bath. Smiling, well behaved, he stands in his rightful place.
The scenario could stop there and point out the ridiculousness of a necessarily ideal representation which is cracking everywhere. Which he does very well, enhanced by the composition of a perfect Ramzy Bedia of extroverted hesitations. But the main challenge of a good comedy is to know how to operate a constant movement and therefore, a shift. And here, eyes soon turn to those close to Youssef to observe the way in which the family will attempt to reclaim a skillfully maintained respectability that the novel, through its intimate revelations, would have betrayed. Which makes the hero’s sister say: “ In France everyone has a problem with Arabs, even Arabs! »
One of the main tensions of the film is also to succeed in hiding said novel from Youssef’s parents so as not to shatter their dreams of fully successful integration. This questioning of course has a universal scope and can be embodied wherever we wish. And by digging into all possible situations, Baya Kasmi succeeds in gradually racing the machine.
Baya Kasmi & Michel Leclerc: “We wrote Le Grand Bazar in reaction to Don’t do this, don’t do that”
