Banzaï (1983)

Banzaï is a French film comedy first released in 1983, directed by Claude Zidi.  The film stars Coluche, Valérie Mairesse, Didier Kaminka, Marthe Villalonga and Eva Darlan.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Michel Bernardin works for Planète Assistance, an insurance company which instantly sends help to travellers no matter where in the world they may be.  Michel is office bound, which suits him because he is terrified of flying.  Ironically, his fiancée, Isabelle is an air hostess, although she has promised Michel she will give up her job since they are soon to be married.  After upsetting his employer Michel finds himself in the front line, travelling all over the world to help distressed customers.  Meanwhile, Isabelle is forced to continue flying until she works out her contract.  The couple resort to an increasingly elaborate charade to conceal from one another what is happening.

One of the weaker films which Coluche made in his brief but often dazzling film career, Banzai has a few exceptionally funny visual jokes but is overall a pretty mediocre offering.  The film’s main plot is too weak to sustain the narrative much beyond the film’s mid-point, by which time decent laughs have become somewhat few and far between.  It is however worth watching the film for the madcap comic stunts in the film’s first half and, best of all, the notorious “elephant man” sequence.

© James Travers 2004

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