Ma vie est un enfer (1991) User Reviews

Life is bad, and then you meet a demon

[The-Sarkologist · 7/10 · 23 July 2011]

When I taped this movie the reception was really horrid so even though I managed to watch it, it was quite blurry. The movie is also quite dark so this meant that even though there is a lot of potential within the movie itself, it was really annoying for me because I couldn't really make anything out. The plot twists all over the place, which is typical for a French movie. A woman is basically really annoyed at life. Her mother walks all over her, she visits a psychiatrist who is only interested in draining her money, her neighbour is a sleaze who wants to bed her, and her sexual experiences are absolutely depressing. Then she accidentally summons a demon who, for her soul, promises to make her life much better, but the twist is that the Arch-Angel Gabriel says that her soul is not for sale and destroys the contract, leaving the woman in a very embarrassing situation. Having been pushed to the edge of suicide, the demon, Abargardon (Abar) must come back to stop her because if she dies then he is the one who is to blame. The movie twists even further when she falls in love with the Abargardon and Abargardon decides that he wants to remain with her. I guess this is a fantasy movie, in the way that it offers are fantastic solution to a life of problems. It is one that we watch to escape from the hell of reality. Many of us whose life is pointless so dearly wish for something magical to happen, and this is reflection in the film, where Abargardon uses his powers to transform her and to glean knowledge that would otherwise have been forbidden to her. This movie dives in much deeper though because the pet demon becomes the demon lover, and the demon lover then comes to seek redemption for what he has done, and this redemption is given to him. The twist here is that with the redemption, he must also give up the life that he had before, that is the life as a demon. He is tempted to drag him back into hell, and he is always falling back onto the temptation. He even simply gives up at one time and goes back to his wicked ways, but he realises that love is stronger than any temptation, and it is love for the woman that pulls him through. The redemption aspect of this movie seems to have a Christian flavour to it. That is when we seek redemption we are given it, but we must give up our old life and begin a new life. Even though we have been redeemed, we are constantly tempted and enticed to fall back into our old lives, but with that temptation comes the love of God, a love that is so strong that can pull us through anything. If we are tempted, and we will be, and if we slide right back, we can always be assured that God's love will be there to drag us back again. As for a demon redeeming himself, I am not sure and will not conjecture on that theory. Instead it seems that the movie uses Abargardon to reflect the side of us that is ultimately evil, and a side that discovers a beautiful side to the world and thus seeks redemption to enjoy it. This movie seems to be a very Christian movie, and if it has such features in it, then I am surprised that it comes from France. But even though it is such a movie, the ending and even scenes at the beginning drag it back down to a typical pagan movie.

A very entertaining and often poignant movie

[Rozinda · 10/10 · 30 May 2008]

I love this movie! Daniel Auteuil is so very good at comedy, and in this movie his co-star is equally brilliant and everyone else acts up to the fun script. It's not just a great laugh but often very poignant as plain, frustrated Leah, dominated by her objectionable, flashy mother, ends up captivating one of the Devil's minor demons, Abargadon.

Spoilers...........

This is a great concept, demons tricking unpleasant humans into signing away their lives to the Devil and Hellfire in return for a few opportunities to do whatever they choose. Well, you can guess that the demons trick the humans. The twists are what make this a superior movie - Leah's plucky determination and the growing affection between herself and the demon in spite of his instinctive urge to cheat everyone including her, and there an hilarious but totally inoffensive slant on St Michael.

Auteuil is a sexy and exciting saturnine anti-hero, and then suddenly he is made human and becomes a pretty useless, frightened slob Leah has to mother. Nothing like suddenly discovering you can't do precisely everything you like! But you still can't help adoring dodgy Abargadon and being pleased when at the end both he and Leah win out in a twist which I certainly didn't anticipate but it's very, very good! There's also a comical little Easter Egg.

Hell Is A Gray Comedy ...

[writers_reign · 9 February 2004]

... but this one is almost jet black so that's all right then. Josiane Balasko was part of a group of writer-performers known as 'Equipe du Splendid' that worked the Cafe Theatre scene in Paris in the late 1970s - Cafe Theatre is still flourishing in Paris with upwards of 50 venues in full swing - and it is amazing how many of them have since made their mark on the large screen, Christian Clavier wrote and co-starred in 'Les Visiteurs', Marie-Ann Chazel appeared in the same movie as the 'clochard', Gerard Jugnot has written and acted in several films and last year wrote, directed and starred in 'Monsieur Batignole' whilst Thierry Thermitte - who co-wrote the film version of 'Nuit d'Ivress' (Drunken Night) with Balasko - the stage version is still playing in Paris after 18 months - has perhaps the highest film profile of all, co-starring with Philippe Noiret in the Ripoux series ('Le Ripoux', 'Ripoux contre Ripoux' and last year 'Ripoux 3', as well as co-starring with Jacques Villeret in the International success of Francis Veber's 'Diner du Cons', soon to be ruined by Hollywood as Dinner of Schmucks). In this effort Balasko features herself as a thirty-five year old spinster - though 'dog' is one of the kinder epithets used about her - who through one of those mistakes so beloved of script writers is contacted by a sort of Satan hanger-on hoping to progress downwards, a sort of Clarence, from Capra's 'It's A Wonderful Life' in reverse. He SHOULD have targeted Balasko's hedonist mum but once he convinces her of his powers they are off to the races and one of the first off-color scenes involves Balasko being transformed into a gorgeous blonde, getting the guy who doesn't know she's alive to attempt to seduce her and then seducing HIM via a phallus thoughtfully provided by Auteuil. From there it's downhill and laffs all the way, if that's what lights your fire, as we say in the nether regions. 7/10