More like three, you have to count the Indian.
Okay.
This film is hilarious. David Lynch, always having the serious work he does with the dirty, bizarre worlds and the disturbing, psychological characters, mixes it up a bit with The Cowboy and the Frenchman, a tale (that doesn't really make sense, as per his usual work) about a bunch of cowboys who find a Frenchman and befriend him. The culture clash is more than one can handle, what with the mix of music, stereotype ("Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that?"), and caricature.
In fact, the entire strength of this short rests on the moment the two underlings open up the Frenchman's case and start pulling out his "affairs", all of them stereotypical things Americans think the French are obsessed with but which are really just things they happen to have a lot of in their culture (the French equivalent would be opening up an American's suitcase and finding a pile of hamburgers and televisions).
Not to say the cowboys don't get their collection of satire, what with shooting random animals, being absolutely stupid, and never understanding anything.
It's piercingly funny, even if it is about five minutes too long and isn't really that much of a work of art as much as just a silly exposition.
--PolarisDiB
Okay.
This film is hilarious. David Lynch, always having the serious work he does with the dirty, bizarre worlds and the disturbing, psychological characters, mixes it up a bit with The Cowboy and the Frenchman, a tale (that doesn't really make sense, as per his usual work) about a bunch of cowboys who find a Frenchman and befriend him. The culture clash is more than one can handle, what with the mix of music, stereotype ("Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that? Damn, what's that?"), and caricature.
In fact, the entire strength of this short rests on the moment the two underlings open up the Frenchman's case and start pulling out his "affairs", all of them stereotypical things Americans think the French are obsessed with but which are really just things they happen to have a lot of in their culture (the French equivalent would be opening up an American's suitcase and finding a pile of hamburgers and televisions).
Not to say the cowboys don't get their collection of satire, what with shooting random animals, being absolutely stupid, and never understanding anything.
It's piercingly funny, even if it is about five minutes too long and isn't really that much of a work of art as much as just a silly exposition.
--PolarisDiB