Cockles And Muscles review

A sweaty summer on the Côte D'Azur... A super-liberal family visiting the house where their dad spent his teen holidays... Aphrodisiac shellfish and sexual awakenings... Such are the ingredients of this French farce.

Inspired by vaudevillian theatre, writer/directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau have whipped up the kind of film that the British could never make. If we did, it would probably be called Carry On Wanking, as much of the film centres around masturbating in the shower and shagging al fresco, with the central thrust being that no end of impropriety is all well and good - it's just society's taboos that label it as wrong. A fair point, but one delivered with such high-camp touches that any serious undertones are covered by a sheen of pure oddness that makes the film grate as often as it amuses.