Mammuth (2010)

Director Benoît Delépine & Gustave Kervern

Anchored by the kind of tour-de-force performance that has made Gérard Depardieu an icon, Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern’s offbeat, affectionate, and frequently very funny road movie provides the hulking actor with his best role in years. He plays Serge (known as “Mammuth” to friends, after his rusting old motorcycle), first seen attending his retirement party at the local pork slaughterhouse. An honest and genuine guy—if not exactly an intellectual heavyweight—Serge finds himself at loose ends now that his working life is over, and it is his wife Catherine (the superb Yolande Moreau) who suggests he seek out his old employers in order to get all his pension-application paperwork in order. Out comes the motorbike, and off scoots Serge on an adventure that will see him cross paths with con artists, his kooky relatives, some hilariously officious bureaucrats—and the ghost of his first love, as embodied by Isabelle Adjani. Delépine and de Kervern underscore the laughs with an unsentimental thread of genuine emotion throughout and then they do the smart thing: they let Depardieu take over. His Serge is one of the most unforgettable characters ever on film. - Seattle International Fim Festival