What Are We Waiting for to Be Happy!
A labor dispute on the set of an automobile commercial-in-the-making becomes the stage for an allegory of anarchy in Coline Serreau's third feature (her first was What the Hell Do These Women Want? followed by Why Not?). Serreau assembled an enormous cast of talented individuals including gypsy clowns, classical dancers and opera singers, as well as costumed reincarnations of Jean Harlow and Rudolf Valentino, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. All report dutifully for a day's work making commercials, but when the producer refuses to pay his motley crew overtime, a rebellion breaks out complete with hostages. Serreau, who has studied circus arts in addition to theater and music, and who is still a trapeze artist and instructor, creates a vivid utopia in the film's visual and emotional texture. But she is quite serious in her intention to give vent to the human desire for an alternative way, to honor the courage “to refuse,” and to give justice a brief moment of triumph.