Tenue de Soirée (Evening Dress) (Ménage) (1986)

80% of critics liked it
(5 reviews)
74% of users liked it
(669 ratings)

Menage begins as a comedy of sorts, but be warned: it develops into a very dark, very confusing probe into the seamier aspects of Parisian life. Gerard Depardieu plays a crude but charismatic thief, whose own gayness does not prevent his commiserating with those of the opposite sex. Miou-Miou and… More Menage begins as a comedy of sorts, but be warned: it develops into a very dark, very confusing probe into the seamier aspects of Parisian life. Gerard Depardieu plays a crude but charismatic thief, whose own gayness does not prevent his commiserating with those of the opposite sex. Miou-Miou and Michel Blanc are young, impoverished lovers who fall under Depardieu's influence. He gains their confidence by introducing them to kinky sex, then sucks them into a vortex of crime. Director Bertrand Blier, who in most of his films has explored the awesome power (rather than pleasure) of sex, nearly outdoes himself in Menage (aka Tenue de Soiree). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 24 min.
Directed By: Bertrand Blier
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Gay & Lesbian, Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 23, 1986 Wide
On DVD: Jul 14, 2009
Studio: Koch

Critic Reviews

Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
Quite funny for the first half and deeply weird for the second, with a laudable courage of its own bizarre conviction throughout, even as it reveals a nasty undertone.
Phil Hall, EDGE Boston
Even with a flaccid sign-off, Menage manages to be wonderfully different.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...ultimately succumbs to the aggressively weird attributes that writer/director Bertrand Blier has hard-wired into the proceedings...

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

"Menage" starts with a night out on the town for Monique(Miou-Miou) and her husband Antoine(Michel Blanc). However, instead of enjoying themselves, she spends her time berating him for the lousy state of their lives.(To be honest, their place is a dump.) Enter Bob(Gerard… More
"Menage" starts with a night out on the town for Monique(Miou-Miou) and her husband Antoine(Michel Blanc). However, instead of enjoying themselves, she spends her time berating him for the lousy state of their lives.(To be honest, their place is a dump.) Enter Bob(Gerard Depardieu), a handsome stranger, who invites them into the exciting world of breaking and entering. So while his huge proboscis leads them to wealth unimaginable, it also as often leads them into trouble... "Menage" is a wickedly entertaining movie from Bertrand Blier wherein he manages with his usual deftness to simultaneously keep the characters and audience off balance throughout which is no surprise considering the characters' no fixed abode. If the movie had stopped for any period of time, it might have given us a chance to take note of the didactic nature of the dialogue. As it is, it is one long intelligent and honest stream of pure debate on the state of marital relations, as the movie seeks to subvert the normal in any way possible. And Antoine's shock at Bob's advances is not any sign of gay panic; it is just that he is too uptight for words. That like everything else will soon change.