Les Baba Cool ("the hippies") is a 1981 French comedy film directed by François Leterrier and starring Christian Clavier, Marie-Anne Chazel and Anémone.
Antoine (Clavier), a Parisian salesman, has an orderly life. One day, during a business trip in Southern France, his car breaks down. He looks for help in the neighbourhood and comes across a Commune of hippies. Attracted by the advances of Aline (Chazel), he decides to spend the night there and sleeps with her. The next day, he comes back home, but his wife finds out he cheated on her and leaves the home. Since he is alone for the holidays, Antoine decides to spend some time with the commune.
Les Baba Cool provides examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: In the market scene, the lines of the Dutch tourists are not translated. They ask Antoine if they made the cheese themselves.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Antoine and his wife have become Bobos in the end. When they invite their friends, they offer them organic food and Antoine tells them how valuable his experience in the commune was.
- Chocolate Baby: Véronique tells that her baby's father is a Swedish guy and she shows the picture of a blond guy. Eventually, the baby turns out to be black. Justified because Véronique is a hippie who believes in free love.
- City Mouse: Antoine lives in Paris. He spends his holiday in a hippie commune in the country. He is not used to the life in the country. He has to learn to milk goats, for example.
- Commune: Most of the film happens in a hippie commune in Southern France.
- Contrived Coincidence: When he decides to spend the night in the commune, Antoine tells his wife that he will sleep at the home of Cristobal, an old friend of his. Unfortunately, the very same say, Cristobal comes unannounced to Antoine's home to pay him a visit.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the first scene, Antoine is driving his car when he comes across a guy whose car has broken down. He refuses to stop to help the man. This establishes Antoine as a selfish jerkass.
- Granola Girl: There are several variants: Aline practices free love, Alexandra is on a spiritual quest, Marie-Jo only likes group sex...
- Henpecked Husband: Jean-Pierre. His wife Marie-Jo constantly yells at him, while he constantly praises her. He also accepts her cheating on him.
- Hippie Parents: Jean-Pierre and Marie-Jo raise their son in a hippy commune. They experiment with non-bourgeois education methods.
- Interrupted Intimacy:
- Francis is having sex with Charlotte in a quiet place when suddenly the firework begins, so that everybody notices them.
- Blaise is having sex with a young girl in Antoine's room, when Antoine walks in to pick up his stuff.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Antoine fails to get it up when Aline abruptly suggests to make love in his new room. He says this is the first time it happens to him.
- Love Dodecahedron: Antoine is married with Christine. In the commune, he tries to seduce Aline. He sleeps with her twice and once with Alexandra. Aline has an intense sex relationship with Francis, who also seduces Charlotte.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Antoine's penis is visible when he goes skinny-dipping in the river.
- Naked First Impression: When Antoine meets Aline for the first time, she is sunbathing in the nude. Antoine is uncomfortable with that, but Aline does not give a damn.
- Naked People Are Funny: The Naked First Impression trope is played for laughs.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: The members of the commune smoke pot, believe in sexual freedom, want to live according to the law of nature...
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: When Aline goes skinny-dipping in the river, Antoine sneaks a peek at her. She notices it, but she does not care. Instead, she invites him to join her.
- Parody: The songs sung by Francis are parodies of the music of Francis Cabrel
, a famous French singer. - Plot-Driven Breakdown: The whole plot is triggered by the fact that Antoine's car breaks down in Southern France. The breakdown has no cause or foreshadowing.
- Polyamory:
- Aline is in an intense sexual relationship with Francis, but she proposes Antoine to have sex with her. Francis, for his part, starts dating Charlotte and Aline (apparently) does not take offence.
- Jean-Pierre and Marie-Jo are married, but Jean-Pierre accepts the fact that his wife has other partners like Raymondo.
- Right Behind Me: After spending the night in the commune, Antoine tells his wife that he slept at Cristobal's. Then he starts criticizing Cristobal. Too bad for him, Cristobal is standing next to him and hears everything: he came unannounced to pay Antoine a visit.
- Right Through the Wall:
- Francis and Aline make a lot of noise when they have sex. Antoine cannot sleep because of that. When Alexandra has a little chat with him, she does not seem to notice Francis and Aline's scream.
- Antoine and Alexandra also make a lot of noise when they have sex: the next day everybody complains about that.
- Security Blanket: Jean-Pierre and Marie-Jo's son still has a security blanket even if he is obviously too old for that kind of stuff. Marie-Jo tells Jean-Pierre that he is going to traumatize their son because he forgot to give him the blanket.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Aline. When Antoine meets her for the first time, she is sunbathing in the nude. Antoine is uncomfortable with that, but Aline does not give a damn.
- Skinny Dipping: When she first meets Antoine, Aline asks him to drive her to the river, where she swims in the nude. After some hesitation, Antoine goes skinny-dipping too.
- Straw Vegetarian: Alexandra is a vegetarian and she is a stupid Granola Girl.
- Stylistic Suck: The theatre play created by the commune is really bad. A part of the audience cannot stand it and makes fun of it. This is a parody of politically-motivated theatre.
