French Literature Reviews - 2026
[Agrégation in Literature] Pierre Beylot, Bertrand Blier's Buffet Froid
Theatre and Performance
Acclaimed by critics as one of Bertrand Blier's most accomplished films, Buffet froid (1979) stands out in the landscape of 1970s French cinema, breaking away from the more farcical and unbridled provocation of the director's early works. Far from realism and rational logic, it depicts an oppressive and dehumanized universe where the burlesque and the sinister, the comical and the tragic, intermingle. Published by Éditions Atlande, this book places the film within the context of "between-the-Mays" France and traces the key stages of the scandal-marked career of the director of Les Valseuses and Tenue de soirée. At the crossroads of eclectic influences ranging from Buñuel to the parodic thriller, from café-théâtre to the Theatre of the Absurd of Beckett or Ionesco, the film dismantles narrative order and stylizes urban spaces dominated by the motif of the closed room. Reviving the trio motif that runs through his entire filmography, Blier assembles a male community that seems to leave little room for female characters—even though the latter play a more complex role than in other films by a director often accused of misogyny. In doing so, he draws on the ambivalent persona of those he calls "monster-actors" (Gérard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, Jean Carmet, Michel Serrault) to create characters with uncertain and ambiguous identities. Orchestrating an irresistible, murderous spiral with a very dark, humorous verve, Blier offers a deeply disenchanted vision of society, reflecting his detachment from the ideologies of social transformation that marked the highly political decade of the 1970s.
This book is aimed at film students and researchers, cinephiles, as well as candidates for the internal agrégation in literature, as the film is on the syllabus for the 2018 competitive examination.
Publication date: December 11, 2017, Éditions Atlande, "Clefs Concours" collection, 192 pages. 19€. ISBN 9782350304786.
Author: Pierre Beylot, Professor of Film and Audiovisual Studies at Université Bordeaux Montaigne.
Table of Contents
Introduction
LANDMARKS
A maverick of French cinema
A chaotic start to a career
Les Valseuses, a "totem film" of post-68 culture
Buffet froid, a turning point in Bertrand Blier's career?
The 1970s and the cinema of "between-the-Mays"
The Air is Red
Popular cinema between comedy, thriller, and eroticism
Portraits of a society in crisis and transition
KEY ISSUES
Narrative mechanics and the logic of the absurd
A dramatic progression in the form of a broken line
A logic running counter to verisimilitude
Circulation of motifs and narrative circularity
Direction and the stylization of space
The closed-room effect and the stylization of spaces
Spaces of circulation and space-traps
Distanced gaze and reflexive vision
Character systems and gender relations
Characters with uncertain and problematic identities
Spectator-characters facing a "nightmare mechanism"
Male community and the battle of the sexes
An actors' film
Depardieu, "knife-man" and "fragile macho"
Monster-actors and the blending of genres
Filming the actors
Black humor and tragic vision
An art of dialogue and witticism
A vector of distancing
A serious game: "a huge joke about death"
Between social criticism and the end of ideologies
Isolated and alienated individuals
An empty and dehumanized world
Gratuitous act and the feeling of the absurd
Conclusion
RESOURCES
Annotated sequence breakdown
Credits and technical details of Buffet froid
Excerpts from interviews with Bertrand Blier
Excerpts from reviews of Buffet froid
Filmography of Bertrand Blier
Bibliography
Glossary
Bertrand Blier's filmography occupies a distinctive place in the landscape of late twentieth-century French cinema, characterized by a restless engagement with genre conventions and provocative narrative structures. Works such as Les Valseuses established his reputation for subverting established moral codes through unbridled dark comedy and social satire. In studies of this cinematic tradition, scholars frequently examine how directors navigate the transition from the overtly political filmmaking of the post-May 1968 decade toward more internalized, stylized explorations of alienation. Buffet froid is situated precisely at this aesthetic turning point, reflecting a broader cinematic turn toward existential absurdity and formal experimentation.
This volume by Pierre Beylot examines the stylistic devices, narrative mechanics, and character dynamics that define the film, paying particular attention to its blend of the burlesque and the sinister. The discussion addresses the director's use of urban spaces, the motif of the closed room, and the performances of leading actors who embody ambiguous identities within a dehumanized universe. Readers interested in French film studies may find it relevant for understanding the intersections of popular cinema, theatrical traditions of the absurd, and auteur theory.