Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis
French film poster
Directed by	Dany Boon
Produced by	Claude Berri Jérôme Seydoux Pathé Hirsch Les Productions du Chicon TF1 Films Production
Written by	Maxime Quoilin
Starring	Dany Boon Kad Merad Zoé Félix
Music by	Philippe Rombi
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution
Release date(s)	20 February 2008 (2008-02-20) (Northern France) 27 February 2008 (France)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	France
Language	French Ch'ti
Budget	€ 11,000,000 (approx US$15,300,000)
Box office	$245,143,223

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis^[1] (English: Welcome to the Sticks^[2] or Welcome to the Land of Shtis^[2]) is a 2008 French comedy film starring Kad Merad, Dany Boon and Zoé Félix.

The film has broken nearly every box office record in France: it debuted as the top film with US$31.67 million at 793 sites.^[3] As of 28 February 2010, the film had been seen by 20.5 million people in 23 weeks, thereby breaking the record of La Grande Vadrouille (released in 1966). The film has grossed US$194 million in France alone and $245 million worldwide.^[4]

Plot

Philippe Abrams is the manager of the postal service (La Poste) in Salon-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, in southern France. He is married to Julie, whose depressive character makes his life miserable. Philippe does everything to get a job at an office on the Mediterranean seaside to make her happy. As this favourable position will be granted to somebody who is disabled, Abrams decides to pretend that he is. However, the management finds out. As punishment, he is banished for two years to Bergues, a town near Dunkirk in northern France. Northern France –and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in particular – is considered "the sticks" – a cold and rainy place inhabited by unsophisticated ch'tis who speak a strange language (called "ch'ti" in local parlance, and "cheutimi" in the South. He has to spend his first night at Antoine's place – Antoine is one of his co-workers. First Philippe dislikes Antoine for his rudeness and because he thinks Antoine is gay (actually, he found photographs of Antoine dressed as a woman, but they were taken during a carnival party). Finally, Antoine and Philippe become best friends.

To Philippe's surprise, Bergues proves to be a charming place teeming with warm, friendly people and co-workers. Soon, he is completely won over, eating smelly Maroilles cheese; talking to virtually every local (by delivering their mail, and accepting the recipient's invitation for a drink); playing at the beach; playing the bells at the bell tower together, drinking beer like a local and so forth. He tries to describe the happy turn of events to his wife who has remained in the South with their young son, but she does not believe him. This inspires Philippe to tell her what she wants to believe: that his life is wretched there.

Everything goes fine until Julie decides to join him in the North to relieve his gloom. Philippe is forced to confess to his new friends and colleagues that he has described them as barbarians to his wife. First, they are angry, but they then decide to help him by behaving as such to cover for his lies and to scare Julie so she will depart quickly. Also they let her stay in the old mining place of Bergues, pretending it is the main town. Julie has a very bad weekend, but decides she will move to Bergues to stay with Phillipe, to be supportive.

Just when she's ready to go back south, she discovers that she has been tricked when a local biker tells Julie that the actual town of Bergues is several kilometers away. When Philippe finds Julie at his real Bergues home, he tells her the truth about the happiness and friendship that the town has brought him. Julie is disappointed at first, but after realising her husband is happy, she decides to move north to be with him.

Meanwhile, Antoine and Annabelle have been dating for over a year, but they have broken up due to Antoine's passiveness towards his mother. Despite their split, Antoine still has feelings for Annabelle, who now has a new boyfriend. Upon learning this, Antoine cheers himself up by drinking alcohol during his work hours and behaves in an erratic manner. When Phillipe urges Antoine to take courage and be assertive, Antoine finally confesses to his mother that he loves Annabelle and is planning to move to a new place with her. Unexpectedly, his mother is happy about it – she has waited all these years for Antoine to stand up for himself. As a result, Antoine proposes to Annabelle by the bell tower when it is playing a Stevie Wonder song. Annabelle accepts, and they get married.

Three years later, Phillipe receives a transfer to move south. Accepting the offer, Phillipe and his family move south. Just as he is about to say goodbye, he is reduced to tears, proving Antoine's theory on the Ch'tis proverb ("A visitor cries twice up north: once on his arrival and once at his departure.")

Cast

Dany Boon during the shooting at Bergues.

• Kad Merad as Philippe Abrams, Head of the local postoffice
• Dany Boon as Antoine Bailleul, postman and carillon performer
• Zoé Félix as Julie, spouse of Philippe Abrams
• Lorenzo Ausilia-Foret as Raphaël Abrams
• Anne Marivin as Annabelle Deconinck
• Philippe Duquesne as Fabrice Canoli
• Guy Lecluyse as Yann Vandernoout
• Patrick Bosso as Policeman on A7
• Zinedine Soualem as Momo
• Jérôme Commandeur as Inspector Lebic
• Line Renaud as Antoine's mother
• Michel Galabru as Julie's uncle
• Stéphane Freiss as Jean
• Alexandre Carrière as Tony
• Jenny Clève as The old lady who sings the P'tit quinquin (Northern French hymn)
• Fred Personne as M. Vasseur
• Christophe Rossignon
• Guillaume Morand

Awards and nominations

• César Awards (France)
  • Nominated: Best Writing – Original (Maxime Quoilin)

• European Film Awards
  • Nominated: Audience Award—Best Film

Adaptation

On 20 May 2008, it was announced that Dany Boon was in the process of signing a deal with Will Smith to make an English adaptation of the film. This new film will be called Welcome to the Sticks.^[5] At the moment it is not clear who the actors will be or what will be the exact nature of the plot, but there have been hints that part of the story will revolve around a multinational company.^[6]

An Italian adaptation, Benvenuti al Sud, has been produced and released by Medusa Film in 2010. The plot is similar to the original version: the manager (Claudio Bisio) of a postal service near Milan, in northern Italy, is banished for two years in Castellabate,^[7] a town near Salerno, in southern Italy. Dany Boon appears in a cameo.

Notes and references

1. ^ The French word Ch'tis is slang for someone from Northern France. See Picard language.
2. ^ ^{a b} Welcome to the Sticks at the Internet Movie Database
3. ^ Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis : Box-Office. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
4. ^ Box Office Mojo
5. ^ "Les Ch'tis americains (pg 17)". Grenoble&moi. http://www.grenobleetmoi.com/pdf/archives/g_moi86.pdf. Retrieved 30 May 2008. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Will Smith va co-produire un remake du film "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis"". Le Matin Online. http://www.lematin.ch/fr/depeches/people/will-smith-va-co-produire-un-remake-du-film-bienvenue-chez-les-ch-tis_68-160025. Retrieved 22 May 2008. 
7. ^ (Italian) Article on the Corriere del Mezzogiorno

External links

• Official website (French)
• Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis at the Internet Movie Database