Crime In Paradise

The critically acclaimed director Jean Becker (THE CHILDREN OF THE MARSHLAND) and the son of filmmaker Jacques Becker, remakes Sacha Guitry's film, LA POISON, about marital bliss turned sour. Jojo (Jacques Villeret) is a sweet, simple man who only wants to tend his goats and make cheese on his farm, which he calls Paradise. But it isn't easy when his wife Lulu (Josiane Balasko), an ogre-like, mean-spirited wench won't stop harassing him. One day while watching television, Jojo sees a famous defense lawyer, Maurice Jacquard (André Dussolier) exalting his latest acquittal. Inspired, Jojo goes to see the lawyer and tells him that he's killed his wife, hoping to discover what kind of mitigating circumstances would lead to a pardon if he really did kill her. What follows is a madcap trial where all the colorful townspeople of Jojo's provincial French village follow him to the city to stand up for him in a contemporary take on the fairy-tale THE TOWN MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE. This film was screened as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2001 festival organized by The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.