Alpe d'Huez 2025: God Save The Tuche opens the festivities, what is this fifth part worth?

The opening ceremony of the comedy festival was also marked by a tribute to Michel Blanc and the humor of the master of ceremonies, Bertrand Usclat.

Between the valves of the master of ceremonies, Bertrand Usclat (revealed by the pastille Graze and who we will find as an actor in two films selected by the festival) and the touching tribute by Gérard Jugnot and Marie-Anne Chazel to their friend Michel Blanc (with a bonus karaoke from When will I see you again, wonderful country? sung by the entire room), the 28th Alpe d'Huez Comedy Film Festival got off to a very strong start last night. Arriving on stage with a guitar, Usclat sang a little song: “ What feels good when things go bad? It's comedy. What makes us piss ourselves like a nursing home resident? It's comedy. What is rarely nominated for the Césars? Yours. » Did you guess? And yes, comedy.

This edition is placed under the sign of the first films (seven out of ten, all the same) and the jury is chaired by Elsa Zylberstein, visibly very moved to have been chosen.

Tuche tea time

“ Cocks, cocks, cocks… would have been the cult line if the film had been called les teuches », laughs Bertrand Usclat before Jean-Paul Rouve, Sarah Stern, Elise Larnicol, co-writers Philippe Mechelen, Nessim Chikhaoui, and composer Martin Rappeneau come to present a preview God Save The Tuchethe fifth installment of the franchise. Rouve replaces Olivier Baroux as director and takes the family to England, under the pretext of a football camp at Arsenal for the football prodigy, Jiji, the grandson.

The Tuche obviously have a hard time getting used to local customs (“ They smell like fish, their fries “, says Cathy over fish and chips in a pub) and protocol when they meet King Charles III (Bernard Menez, not bad at all) and Queen Camilla (Elise Larnicol, ex-Robin Hood). Elephants in a china shop which sometimes make you smile (Pierre Lotin's light stupid act is always priceless) but are somewhat exhausting in the long term. A bit like the third film, where Jeff Tuche became president of France, God Save The Tuche is a series of bizarre situations vaguely linked together by the scenario.

We are not going to claim to have made a difference in terms of staging with the Baroux era, with the exception, perhaps, of a very cut edit which refuses any downtime. The valve factory is in overdrive and the cartoonish enthusiasm of the characters, signature of the franchise, is pushed into the red. Jean-Paul Rouve attempts here and there to insert absurd humor in the style of Les Nuls (Alain Chabat and Dominique Farrugia are also summoned, we'll leave you the surprise) and this “robindesboisized” version of Tuche strangely makes Jeff lose the humanity that compensated for his stupidity. Rouve, possibly too busy with directing, transforms his main character into a sulky/blunderer who no longer has quite the altruism of his beginnings.

God Save The Tuche will be released in theaters on February 5.