It was out of season
We looked and looked again, checked on all the meteorological sites with historical data: it was not cold on this Wednesday, August 25, 1982 in France, barely a few snowflakes had whitened the peaks of the Alps at the end of the month in those years carelessness (climatic).
But it was that day that landed on French screens Santa Clause is garbage , a comedy that would become cult from generation to generation. Except that, no forecast had established it on the big day of the summer 1982 release.
You still had to be a bit crazy, like the film and like the Splendid troupe, to bet on this release date even a lev from the Bulgarian currency of the epic Monsieur Preskovic (Bruno Moynot) , the kind and clingy neighbor of the Santa Claus is garbage cook of the most famous biscuits of the cinema, the doubitchous of Sofia, rolled under the armpits.
it was not a gift
For a long time, summer was the dull season for movies. A minor season until we discovered that it was a bonanza season for American blockbusters and that summer was ticked off in the very commercial release calendar.
But even today, if the summer has seen its box office rise in profitability, no distributor would think of releasing a Christmas film in the middle of a dodger. These last years, Santa & Cie, Le Grinch, Last Christmas or The Tuches 4 kept their winter sweaters in winter and went out at the end of the year.
A Christmas film in the summer, this off-the-cuff marketing idea was daring: in 1982, Santa is garbage paid the price. It recorded a modest performance when it was released, with 1.5 million admissions. Not a dunce cap, but nothing to mess around with.
Seen on TV
It was on television through the chimney of the end-of-year program grids that Jean-Marie Poiré’s Christmas farce gained in popularity, surpassed the all-comers of comedy and definitely hooked the Splendid troupe. on the picture rails of the Cinematographic Heritage Museum. Zézette, Félix, Pierre, Thérèse and Katia have been transformed into heroic characters.
Garbage has become cult under the TV program tree. For its last seen on TV, December 22, 2021 on France 2, Jean-Marie Poiré’s indestructible comedy with Thierry Lhermitte, Anémone, Marie-Anne Chazel, Bruno Moynot, Gérard Jugnot, Christian Clavier and Josiane Balasko has again gathered 3.58 million people.
The French never tire of this frosty story of misty humanity, from this Christmas evening to the permanence of SOS distress-friendship with Pierre and Thérèse, where we come across marginalized people, those battered by life, the desperate who want to be less alone, less unloved. As Thérèse says: “I don’t know if we can compare love and cod brandade, but it is certain that well done, it can be very good!” »