La Vie Est Belle -Hina Anwar

                The film La Vie Est Belle was pretty amusing to watch. At first I wasn't sure I would like it because it was supposed to be about music and the beginning was very misleading. However, the antics of the characters in the film were actually really funny if not a little awkward. Some of the humor may have been used to ridicule the social classes.  For instance Nvouandou's belief that dancing on one foot while not touching his virginal wife for a month will solve his impotency problem. I think he had no real way of solving that problem and it was meant the rich used their money on meaningless things such as a witch doctor. It was also used to make Kuru look better and comment on how money isn't the solution to everything and that happiness can't be bought.

It was interesting seeing how Nvouandou was the "boss" of the town and so everyone had to obey him. Yet Kuru's friends and Nvouandou's second wife all opposed him to give Kuru his happiness. Nvouandou had everything and then Kuru ended up taking his second wife. He also got to be a singer because of Nvouandou even though he had been the one saying that Kuru was nothing more a servant.  What was weird was Kuru's changing social class. In the beginning he had no clothes and money yet somehow in the middle of the film he got nice clothes and stopped looking like a beggar. It made me wonder if it was so easy to jump between social classes in the Congolese culture.

What made me really happy was that Kabibi took advantage of her situation. She didn't really like her husband, just his money and since he had no intention of consummating their marriage for a month she actually took advantage of it. For once there was a female character that didn’t just sit around and do nothing. She was actually intelligent in how she handled everything instead of taking the role of the doting wife. The only part of her character that I did not like how she passed out in grief at Kuru's "suicide".

The whole suicide and then passing out thing was over dramatic. Kuru and Kabibi got into a fight, there was no need for such drastic action. Couples fight, it's only natural. Things weren't always going to be rosy.   

The catch phrase "life is rosy" was really annoying, or maybe the character and the way he said were annoying. I think it meant that life can be great despite the many hardships people face. Kuru was struggling for a while and yet there were still things to look forward to in his life like his music and Kabibi. Overall the film was funny, if not a little overdramatic.