Bimboland (1998)

Instant Favorite.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Cecile Bussy, a university student working on her thesis, has made important contributions to further her knowledge by going to remote areas to discover primitive people in their habitat. Unfortunately, nothing seems to stop the advancement of progress as Cecile returns to find the natives enjoying modern conveniences.Cecile is told of a change at the helm of the university, where Laurent Gaspard will be her boss. She is a dowdy dresser, feeling an attraction to Gaspard, she is told by the popular Alex Baretto she must act as a bimbo if she wants to win Gaspard's affections. Alex supervises Cecile's transformation from a scholar into a vapid blonde joke.Not having a clue as to what "Bimboland" was about,we took a chance in watching. The film, as directed by Ariel Zeitoun will certainly did nothing for women. Just the mere idea to become a "bimbo" is unimaginable, but it is more than an attitude, it is basically to play and act dumb in order to get favors from rich men. Judith Godreche, Gerard Depardieu and Aure Atika will not add anything to their resumes based on this movie.

I love this movie and I am not offended with it even though it may be regarded by some people as a "sexist movie". What's the use of being offended by the facts of life - men do usually prefer women that look great to women that have brains. And this is basically the theme the movie explores in its own funny way, with quite an optimistic ending leaving enough hope for happiness for women with brains as well. But my favorite scene in the movie is one a the very beginning and not related to the main theme - when Cecile returns to her newly discovered sensational Amazon tribe and finds them already enjoying fruits of civilization. That is an absolutely brilliant scene, in my opinion, and it alone makes the movie worth watching.

Too bad Judit Godrèche's, Aure Atika's and Gérard Depardieu's great talent was wasted on this flick. It's bad! OK, there's beautiful woman in it, but it doesn't make it more easier to enjoy. Some parts of the film show potential, but it's not going further. Like if the director said: let's not try to make this an intelligent film about this one, let's just sell tickets for the screenings. Too bad!I give it 65. That's good for *½ out of ****.Seen at home, in Toronto, on September 9th, 2002.

I can understand why this movie received such a low rating. Women will be offended by the blatant sexism in the film, and the plot is very shallow. The film is kind of like one of those old Love That Bob series with Robert Cummings. The slapstick situations that are, well, funny. However, being a normal male that likes to look at hot women, I enjoyed the film. It also reminded me of Superman, where Lois Lane loved Superman, she didn't like Clark Kent though. Gerard Depardieu doesn't like Judith Godreche as a brilliant research person with her hair up and wearing glasses, but when she dresses up like a Bimbo and acts like one--he loves her! Ok, so it wasn't one of those sophisticated deep films. Even though it probably deserves its low IMDB rating of 4, I'm ashamed to admit it--I liked it.