C'est la vie! (in French Le Sens de la fête, which means "the sense of celebration") is a 2017 French comedy film directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, starring Jean-Pierre Bacri, Gilles Lellouche and Jean-Paul Rouve.
Max (Bacri) is a wedding planner. He is in charge of organizing Pierre's wedding. He will have a lot of problems with his team, which includes a lazy photographer (Rouve) and a self-centered singer (Lellouche).
C'est la vie! provides examples of:
- All Part of the Show: When Pierre flies away with his helium balloon, the two Tamil employees do not realize that the show does not go as planned. Instead, they praise the French for their sense of celebration.
- Balloonacy: Happens to Pierre when James and Adèle let go of the ropes of his helium balloon.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between James and Adèle. They quarrel constantly until Max tells them to hug each other to improve their team spirit. The hug becomes a very sensual embrace.
- Brick Joke: Early in the film, Samy is told to shave. Much later, Patrice says that the fridges were unplugged and he found an electric shaver on the socket.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The fact that the electrical system of the château is unreliable is showed during the preparation of the party (the fuses blow when the PA is used at the same time as the ovens). In the climax, there is an electricity blackout.
- The flutes are showed early in the film (when Samy confuses them with champagne flutes). They are used by an Indian employee when the PA is out because of the electricity blackout.
- Deadpan Snarker: Max. In his Establishing Character Moment, he seriously tells two prospects that, for their wedding, they should ask their guest to bring food and drinks. For the decoration, he will ask a little girl he knows to prepare it with crepe paper.
- The Ditz: Samy. He confuses turbot with turbo (which have the same pronounciation in French). He is surprised to hear that the loup is a fish (loup means both "wolf" and "bass"). When he is asked to fetch flutes, he thinks of musical instruments, not champagne flutes.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the opening sequence, Max meets two people who are going to get married. This establishes Max as a wedding planner and as a Deadpan Snarker with a Hair-Trigger Temper when he tells them his ideas to reduce costs.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The story takes place during a wedding party, from the afternoon to the next morning.
- Finagle's Law: Someone unplugs the friges, so the food is spoiled. James and Adèle let go of the ropes of the groom's helium balloon, so Pierre flies away. The fireworks explodes and there is an electricity blackout. These are just the main problems that Max has to deal with.
- Funny Foreigner: The two Tamil employees. For example, one of them has an Overly Long Name that the photographer cannot repeat. Max asks one of them to interrupt him on some pretext when he talks with Pierre. The Tamil employee interrupts him several times, but cannot find a pretext.
- Grammar Nazi: Julien, an ex-literature professor, keeps on correcting people when they make language mistakes.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: The two Tamil employees make derogatory comments about the other characters in Tamil. For example, they say that Julien is depressive and that his trousers look like pyjamas.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Max is scared to death when he thinks that a tax inspector has infiltrated the party. This guy turns out to be someone interested in buying up his company.
- It's All About Me: Pierre, the groom, is very self-centered. He asks James to introduce him as someone exceptional before his speech.
- Left the Background Music On:
- When the party begins, Max checks that everything is OK. The background music is revealed to be a song that James sings on the château's stairs.
- In the end, Max comes back to the château during the blackout. The background music is revealed to be played by his employees (an Indian employee plays the flute, James plays the piano...).
- Long Speech Tea Time: Pierre's speech is very long. A guest is falling asleep and his wife has to nudge him.
- The Mistress: Josiane is Max's mistress.
- Only Sane Man: Max. The groom is a self-centred jerk. The bride is a dreamer. Max's team is made up of a lazy photographer who only thinks of eating, a self-centred singer who thinks that he is a star, an agressive and rude assistant, two funny foreigners, a ditz, a dreamy ex-teacher who constantly corrects language mistakes...
- Operation: Jealousy: Josiane flirts with Patrice because Max cannot dump his wife to move in with her.
- Overly Long Name: Guy advises his trainee to ask everyone's name, so that he can call everybody by his name. Guy then asks the name of one of the Tamil employees. The Tamil employee answers, but his name is very long and difficult to pronounce. Guy then tells his trainee that, in such a case, he can just say hello.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Max gives one to his employees after the groom has flied away, the fireworks have exploded and the fuses have blown.
- Running Gag:
- Someone says that Julien's trousers look like pyjamas.
- Adèle tells Max that something terrible happened. After a beat, Adèle tells him that she was joking.
- Following Max's instructions, a Tamil employee interrupts Max, but he never find a pretext to do it.
- Shout-Out: The tables are named after novels by Romain Gary/Émile Ajar, except one named La Nuit des temps, after a novel by René Barjavel (translated as The Ice People in English).
- Technologically Blind Elders:
- Max has problems with the autocorrect of his smartphone, so he often sends confusing messages.
- Guy is astounded to hear that dating apps with a geolocation function exist. He asks Bastien, his young trainee, to help him to use it.
- Title Drop: When Pierre flies away with his helium balloon, the two Tamil employees praise the French for their sense of celebration (in French "sens de la fête").
- Wedding Smashers: The wedding party has several important problems. The most critical one is when the groom is taken away in the air by a helium balloon. The wedding has a happy ending anyway.
- Workplace-Acquired Abilities:
- Patrice, a waiter, is a policeman during the daytime. When some people get food poisoning, he investigates the case.
- An Indian employee mentions early in the film that he worked as a musician in his home country. He uses his skills in the climax to play music during the electricity blackout.
