Je suis timide... mais je me soigne (1978) - film review

Since childhood, Pierre’s shyness has thwarted every one of his attempts to strike up a rapport with a member of the opposite sex.  One day, employed as a cashier in a luxury hotel, he falls instantly in love with a glamorous young woman, Agnès.  Determined not to let this latest dart from Cupid’s bow pass him by, he seeks help from the institute of advanced psychology.  Salesman Aldo takes charge of Pierre and shows him how to improve his self-confidence.  It looks like a totally lost cause…

One of Pierre Richard’s more successful directorial offerings is this Woody Allen-style comedy in which he plays a likeable buffoon who is totally out of his depth, the kind of role which made the actor one of France’s most popular comic performers in the 1970s.  Despite a pretty lacklustre, rambling script and an uninspiring cast, Richard and his co-star Aldo Maccione manage to bring home a fair quota of laughs, thanks to some imaginative off-the-wall visual comedy.  The scenes where Pierre Richard sets out to buy some underpants as though he were prosecuting a military campaign show the actor at his comic best.

© James Travers 2007

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