Radiance Films have taken an interest in the works of French
writer-director Alain Cavalier with the restored Blu-ray edition of his debut
1962 film Fire and Ice, a French New Wave crime drama co-starring Jean-Louis
Trintignant about a political assassin on the run who gets himself into a love
triangle with his best friend and his wife played by Romy Schneider. Soon after Cavalier also unveiled the 1964
French noir The Unvanquished starring Alain Delon and the 1968 romantic
drama Heartbeat starring Catherine Deneuve but didn’t make another
picture until 1976 with his lighthearted episodic road movie dramedy Fill ‘Er
Up with Super.
A largely plot free
sojourn through France involving four characters including a car salesman, his
friend, a hitchhiker and his tagalong buddy, this freeform slice-of-life road
movie was borne out of a friendly actor’s workshop amassing months of
preparation and therefore more naturalistic performances akin to the later
works of Richard Linklater and it comes to Blu-ray for the first time in a new
2K digital restoration.
Care salesman Klouk (Bernard Crombet) is stuck once again
having to skip out on a family event in order to appease his boss by delivering
an expensive Chevrolet station wagon to a wealthy client. Entrusting his friend Philippe (Xavier Saint-Macary)
to join in for company on the cross-country road trip, they pick up two hitchhikers
Charles (Etienne Chicot) and his friend Daniel (Patrick Bouchitey).
From here, the film becomes a series of pit
stops including bars, breakfast luncheons, picnicking and at one point one of
the hitchhikers stops at his ex-wife’s home to deliver an inflatable toy airplane
to his son only to wreck her bedroom out of spite. At one point too, the car gets banged up and
in another the hitchhikers slip some hash into Klouk’s food which sends him
into first time stoner shock. Mostly
though, the film is something of a relaxed, unpredictable hangout movie about
the kinship and bond these four unlikely mates develop over the film’s running
time.
An enjoyable rumination on the values of friendship, the
bonds and gulf of masculinity including an aside where Philippe showers naked
for a gay man to garner some extra cash for the road trip, Fill ‘Er Up with
Super is a quietly affecting and involving road movie dramedy featuring
naturalistic performances that touch on the John Cassavetes technique of
eliciting real laughter from his actors.
Take for instance a scene mid movie where the quartet pulls over the car
on the side of the road and they’re slaphappy with laughter and good cheer
despite not really knowing for sure where and when they’re going.
The film does a good job of interspersing
between each of the characters’ subsequent dilemmas though they try their best not
to trample on one another’s terrain.
Another delightful aside involves when one of the hitchhikers picks up
his ex-wife’s son and they go driving together.
The camaraderie between the four main actors and the child actor is kind
of infectious, almost like play rather than performing.
With its soft-hearted acoustic score by co-star Etienne
Chicot, scenic and mannered 1.66:1 cinematography by The Browning Version cameraman
Jean-François Robin, Fill ‘Er Up with Super became an out of the gate
critical favorite as a modern contemporary French classic. Later voted by Time Out Paris as one of the
greatest French films of all time, this slice-of-life episodic adventure is one
of the more quiet and subtle road movies which achieves its power without the
need for bombast or hyperbole.
All four
cast members who co-wrote the film with director Cavalier give wonderful
performances which feels less like acting than a group of friends hanging out
together. The Radiance Films disc is
lovely and comes with three short films starring the same cast members directed
by Cavalier made throughout the 2010s, a video essay by Cahiers du Cinema’s deputy
editor Charlotte Garson. Radiance Films
is one of my favorite new boutique labels and I had previously missed out on
their release of Fill ‘Er Up with Super so I circled back on it. Very glad I did as it represents one of
French cinema’s most beloved clandestine gems.
--Andrew Kotwicki