A 1994 French-Canadian comedy about a thoroughly Average Joe who finds himself the star of a reality TV program, with cameras recording his every move. LOUIS THE 19th, KING OF THE AIRWAVES (Louis 19, le roi des ondes) was a sizable hit in its native Quebec and purchased by Hollywood—but, as with the French MON PERE, CE HEROS (1991; remade as MY FATHER THE HERO in ’94) and the Danish NATTEVAGTEN (1994; remade as NIGHTWATCH in ’97), its American release was suppressed in favor of an expensive Hollywood remake, which took the form of the 1999 Ron Howard directed comedy ED TV (whose producer Brian Grazer bragged on a DVD supplement that he never bothered watching LOUIS THE 19th all the way through).
Reality has of course long since caught up with both films. LOUIS THE 19th, however, holds up better than you might expect, being fast paced, bright and inventive (none of which can be said for the dreary ED TV).
Louis Jobin (Martin Drainville) is a stereo salesman who submits a video application to be on a radical program produced by Channel 19, whose executives are seeking to create the world’s “first” reality TV star. The channel’s cynical CEO Charlotte (Patricia Tulasne) chooses Louis due to his unassuming nature, and he quicky becomes a major celebrity, with pregnant women offering him their bus seats, corporations eagerly advertising products on the program and Louis’s fame-hungry mother Aline (Dominique Michel) using it to enhance her media profile.
Inevitably Louis finds a girlfriend in the form of Julie (Agathe de La Fontaine), an actress. What neither he nor the viewing public initially realizes is that Julie has been hired by Charlotte as a ploy to boost ratings. Upon discovering the ruse Louis is pissed, as are his viewers. He elects to disappear, leading to a “Find Louis” campaign by camcorder wielding TV viewers. Two of those viewers, a pair of female groupies, find Louis and become accomplices in his campaign to escape the cameras.
Appropriately for a film about television, LOUIS THE 19th has the visual grammar of a TV show. The framing is undistinguished, with lots of room left at the top and sides of each shot, and the nuance-free performances are strictly sitcom level (with numerous well-known Quebecois media personalities making cameo appearances). Most damaging of all is the painfully generic score by Jean-Marie Benoit, which in 1994 already felt at least a decade out of date.
What redeems the film is its endlessly inventive script, which provides elements like a woman who, disenchanted with Louis, runs up to him with her TV remote, clicking the Off button and shouting “take that!,” and a sign on Louis’ bathroom door reading “Louis will be back in five minutes.” The digs at media manipulation and disruption, which will feel familiar to nineties movie buffs (the film was released around the same time as MAN BITES DOG and NATURAL BORN KILLERS), are subtle but quite pointed.
The smartest move made by director Michel Poulette (whose filmography, unsurprisingly, consists largely of small screen fare) was in keeping the script at the forefront and dispensing with indulgent and show-offy elements. The result is a resolutely even-tempered film that keeps its aims modest and is impossible not to enjoy.
Vital Statistics
LOUIS THE 19th, KING OF THE AIRWAVES (Louis 19, le roi des ondes)
Eiffel Productions/Les Films Stock International
Director: Michel Poulette
Producer: Richard Sadler
Screenplay: Sylvie Bouchard, Émile Gaudreault, Michel Michaud, Michel Poulette
Cinematography: Daniel Jobin
Editing: Denis Papillon
Cast: Martin Drainville, Agathe de La Fontaine, Dominique Michel, Patricia Tulasne, Benoit Briere, Yves Jacques, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge