An aging Parisian beauty surgeon, who cannot stand it, or himself, any more, decides to go to Tombuctu, to disappear from civilized life. He is lucky and goes to Calabuch instead. This Mediterranean village created in 1956 by director Luis Garcia Berlanga has been revamped with spare parts from the Freedonia of Groucho March and brought up to date. One gets to know a large bunch of dissimilar characters who take life easy. Sex, food, and personal relations are the major pursuits. The story, if there is any, is a succession of visual and verbal punch lines which follow one another so closely that one does not have the time to recover. No component of society escapes this satire unscathed, but the worst ridicule is heaped upon servants of Church and State. If you feel injured by some of the blows, you are probably a normal person, but if you do not enjoy most of them, your case is serious, not even Calabuch can save you.
Review of París Tombuctú
