‘Intouchables’ directors in Israel to promote new frothy farce

French-Jewish filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano were in Israel as part of a 12-country screening tour for “C’est La Vie,” their latest film.

“It’s always good to return to Israel and Tel Aviv,” said Toledano at a recent press conference in Tel Aviv. “There’s always something to see.”

The two were in Israel to help kick off the Oh La La French film festival sponsored by the French Institute, held November 16 through December 5 at movie theaters around the country.

The French-speaking press came out in droves to chat with the duo of writer-directors about their sixth feature film, a frothy farce about a wedding planner putting together a budget wedding in a 17th-century castle with a staff of uncouth yahoos.

An Israeli angle to the romantic, feel-good comedy is its soundtrack, composed by trumpeter Avishai Cohen.

“C’est La Vie” follows “Samba” (2014) and their wildly successful “The Intouchables” (2011), and sticks with their familiar themes of laughter and pathos.

Still, there are also underlying ideas, said Nakache.

“We don’t want to put those themes up front,” he said. “If someone can sense them, that’s fine, but we’re happy if people just want to enjoy the film on its most basic level, escaping from life for two hours and forgetting their problems.”

The two directors have been friends for much of their lives — “almost raised together,” said Toledano — and have similar reflections about their films and the messages they wish to convey to audiences.

“We’re here for a short time in this world, and you have to adapt to its challenges,” he said. “With the mess around us, what choice do we have?”

The two also commented on the proliferation of French in Israeli streets and what that reflects about their own lives back in France.

“We brought our non-Jewish producer here, telling him all about what he would experience in the Middle East, and he heard all the French in the cafes and said, ‘It’s like Nice or Marseille,'” said Toledano.

The two, who live in Paris, said they don’t experience anti-Semitism in their own lives, as they don’t live or work in the French suburbs, where much of the recent anti-Semitic acts take place.

“We can’t compare our situation to a Jew who works somewhere where it’s hard to be Jewish, where you need to take off your mezuzah,” said Toledano. “We’re not representative of the Jewish community, but we can feel that Jews aren’t comfortable in France. That’s why they’re moving to Canada, to Miami, to here.”

“Oh La La” French film festival, November 16 through December 5, at movie theaters around the country.