I just watched "les portes de la gloire" on DVD (no special need to see it in a theatre, this is not the big picture on wonderful sets !). I actualy give it a 10/10, that maybe doesn't mean the same for me than for others : it means first that I entered the movie, it means it was worth watching, it means it was not stupid (or stupid enough to make think)... It means it is a real movie. "Les portes de la gloire" is about a few salesman (we say "VRP" in france, I don't know the name in english : a saleseman "on the road"). They sell books about we-don't-realy-know-what, something like an encyclopedia. These men force unemployed people (for instance) to buy useless books. It is not a realy good job. They all are a little stupid, of course. Well, what else can I say ? The characters work fine, there is a lot of funny situations, and there is no "happy end" : nobody gets rich suddenly or start another job, the men stay what they are. The real good point here is how much we can believe it is not caricature, but the real world. Salesman movies could become a "genre" with stuff like this movie or "comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard" (Michel Audiard). Poelvorde is, as always, brilliant.
Review of Les portes de la gloire
