Venice is Calling (Perth Film Festival)  ★★★

THE 2019/20 Perth Film Festival will likely be most remembered by audiences for Richard Eggers’ nightmarish The Lighthouse.

Another highlight was The Peanut Butter Falcon, but Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die was a misfire.

The fourth Festival film I have seen to date is the French comedy Venice Is Calling which doesn’t reach any heights but is still warm entertainment.

Director and writer Ivan Calbérac adapts his own 2015 novel to tell the story of teenage Emile’s coming-of-age while living with his eccentric parents Bernard and Annie.

The family live in France and are building a house, but it’s been taking a while and they have been living in a caravan on the block next door.

Along the way Emile’s parents’ spendthrift ways have deepened which adds to the 15-year-old’s embarrassment at their eccentricities.

It’s obvious they love Emile very much and, when he expresses interest in a girl from school, they are eager to help.

But the girl is from a rich family and Emile is embarrassed by his own. When the girl invites him to a music recital she is doing in Venice Emile’s father’s solution to their lack of money is for everyone to go in their caravan.

Also along for the ride is Emile’s older brother who shares his embarrassment but also takes it upon himself to help his brother lose his virginity.

The script isn’t quite as funny as the premise suggests it should be. I was waiting for more interaction between the two sets of parents but this didn’t eventuate.

The other key is the performances and in that regard the film definitely delivers.

Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde has been around since the early ‘90s with his first major success being the bizarre black comedy Man Bites Dog in 1992.

He was most recently part of the ensemble in the 2018 French film Sink or Swim, remade in English as Swimming With Men, but still the superior version.

Poelvoorde is a delight as Bernard and, while Valérie Bonneton as Annie and Helie Thonnat as Emile are also very good, he provides most of the laughs.

It’s an engaging, sweet comedy but don’t expect too many laugh-out loud moments.