Totone (Clement Faveau) is your everyday French lad. He’s unafraid of his body; he even strips in front of the entire town during the opening credits. People worry he’s becoming too much like his father, a heavy-drinker and milkman, but he’s convinced he’s nothing like his old man. After all, he’s popular with the ladies, and doesn’t seem too bothered that he “can’t get it up”. Suddenly, his father dies, and he’s left to care for little sister Claire (Luna Garret); bereft of money, short of time.
He’s kindly offered a job at a dairy factory, but endures taunts from co-workers. Invariably, he’s fired, but Marie-Lise (Maiwene Barthelemy), an elegant young farmer, takes pity on him, and invites him back to her place. She senses Totone’s dilemmas, but reprimands him for being self-piteous. When Totone discovers a cheese making competition, complete with a €30,00 cash prize, he takes her advice, and sets about winning the competition. Considering the quality of her cow milk, Totone decides to take some of it for himself, but things take a dicier turn the moment she kisses him, and they become an item. The more time he spends with her, the harder it becomes to steal from her, but duty bound to his sister, he carries on in the hope of collecting the money at the end of the pasture.
As debuts go, Holy Cow is a strangely confident one, boasting superlative performances from Faveau and Garret,who are perfectly believable as siblings. They share knowing looks, in-jokes and smiles, and like a lot of brothers before him, Totone leans heavily on Claire’s guidance. She stands as his one voice of support in a town that ridicules, taunts and insults him, just as it is her presence that pushes him to test the boundaries of his relationship, and steal.
Faveau embodies the persona of a brusque, bullish teen nicely: his eyes flit from side to side when he’s asked to perform fellatio on Marie-Lise, his unfamiliarity apparent from the get go. Still, Totone and Marie-Lise get on, which is evident from one lingering montage, their hands tied together against the backdrop of the pastoral French countryside. Director Louise Courvoisier wisely follows Peter Hunt’s example with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), as a schmaltzy ballad washes over the couple, their body showcasing a love that extends far beyond words.
Whether by budget or by design, Courvoisier lets the actors do the heavy lifting, and while the film isn’t a comedy in the strictest sense, it nevertheless boasts a number of very funny quips: “We need to make real cheese, not this laughing cow shit,”;”Do you fuck fully clothed?”; “What is your name?” Unsurprisingly, Claire is given the greatest free reign to chew the scenery, prodding her brother to get a move on in life (“I knew you would get fired,” she says, barely concealing her smirk as she does so.) The film is very well cast, although Dimitry Baudry’s Francis gets a little short-changed as the film focuses on the more colourful characters.
Stylistically, the camera movement follows a holistic path: what close-ups there are focus on Totone,and his personal odyssey. Faveau’s most refined moment comes when his character faces a pregnant cow. The cow watches him enter and leave the farmyard, moo-ing in certain disapproval when he returns. Totone looks worried: Does the cow know what he is doing, and is it as great a crime in the animal world as it is in French society? It’s all there in his facial expression: icy cold, yet animated. Like any teenager in his desperate position – one of his friends traded their vehicle so that he could travel by tractor – he has to decide if the sensible thing is the moral thing. Holy Cow asks many questions of its viewers, but never at the cost of the entertainment factor.
Holy Cow premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival, when. this piece wax originally written. Also showing in the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and at the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. In cinemas on Friday, April 11th. On VoD on Monday, September 8th.
