Virginie Efira + Guillaume Canet + Marina Foïs: 5 Years Before L'Amour Ouf, This Film Featured One of the Most Incredible Casts in French Cinema!

The film “Le Grand Bain” is leaving Netflix on June 19, and it’s a must-see of recent French cinema.

5 years before the phenomenal success of L’Amour Ouf, actor Gilles Lellouche made his directorial debut with Le Grand Bain, a dramedy that brought together the crème de la crème of French cinema in a swimming pool: Virginie Efira, Leïla Bekhti, Marina Foïs, Guillaume Canet, Benoît Poelvoorde, Mathieu Amalric, Philippe Katerine, and Alban Ivanov.

On the occasion of its departure from Netflix on June 19, we wanted to revisit this unique “group film” that certainly earned its 4.3 million admissions and its status as a popular comedy.

What Is It About?

In the corridors of their municipal swimming pool, Bertrand, Marcus, Simon, Laurent, Thierry, and others train under the relatively loose authority of Delphine, a former glory of the pools. Together, they feel free and useful.

They will channel all their energy into a discipline that has until now been the domain of women: synchronized swimming. So yes, it’s a rather strange idea, but this challenge will allow them to find meaning in their lives…

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A “Group Film” Like No Other

While preparing to shoot the film Un singe sur le dos, in which he plays an alcoholic attending support meetings, Gilles Lellouche came up with the idea for Le Grand Bain. He recounts: "When I attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to prepare for [the film], I was amazed by the warmth, the dialogue, and the listening that prevailed there, without any judgment. […] I loved this bubble of sharing." This horizontal nature of relationships is what makes group films so special, where no character is truly above the others.

But if the goal was to create a sense of group effect, why cast such prestigious actors who are individually recognized by the public? This is precisely where Le Grand Bain distinguishes itself from typical group films. Gilles Lellouche's gamble is to have stars play pathetic or even ridiculous characters, to better show that it is their togetherness that makes them grand.

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One can see a parallel in this approach with the very condition of the film actor: always rewarded alone at ceremonies, the quality of their personal performance is nonetheless intimately linked to those who share the screen with them. They may be stars and enjoy the honors of sets where they are the only guests, but in cinema as in synchronized swimming: it is only together that something beautiful can be built.

Le Grand Bain is available on Netflix until June 19.