L’Aile ou la cuisse (1976)

L’Aile ou la cuisse is a French film comedy first released in 1976, directed by Claude Zidi.  The film stars Louis de Funès, Coluche, Ann Zacharias, Julien Guiomar and Philippe Bouvard.  It has also been released under the title: The Wing and the Thigh.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Charles Duchemin is France’s most reputed culinary expert, an esteemed food critic and author of the best-selling Duchemin restaurant guide.  He is about to be received into the Académie Française and plans to retire, intending that his son Gérard will continue his work.  Unfortunately, Gérard’s sole ambition is to become a comedian and, without his father knowing it, he works part-time as a clown in a travelling circus.  Duchemin’s mortal enemy is Jacques Tricatel, the supermarket magnate who is planning to open a chain of fast-food restaurants.  When he hears about this, Duchemin agrees to appear on a chat show with Tricatel in order to expose him as an enemy of French cuisine.  However, before the show goes out Duchemin loses his sense of taste and Tricatel discovers his son’s secret pastime...



Haute cuisine takes on the might of prêt-à-manger in this spirited satirical farce which serves up a mouth-watering double portion of comic genius in the shape of Louis de Funès and Coluche.  One of the better films that De Funès made for director Claude Zidi, L’Aile ou la cuisse offers not only some sublime comedy but also a deliciously acerbic satire on several aspects of culinary life in France.  Of course, what sells the film is the unforgettable union of two immensely talented comedic performers, each of whom achieved an unrivalled popularity in the course of his career.

Coluche and Louis de Funès could hardly be more different, both in their personalities and in their style of comedy.  Yet, over the next decade, the former would inherit the latter’s mantle as the most high-profile and popular comedian in France.  Coluche won widespread affection and support when he chose to run against François Mitterand in the 1981 French presidential election, although his lasting legacy is the charity Restos du coeur, which he founded in 1985.  Coluche’s success would doubtless have continued were it not for his tragic death in a road accident in 1986.

Interestingly, the role played by Coluche in L’Aile ou la cuisse was originally intended for another popular comic actor, Pierre Richard, but he turned the part down.   Although Coluche and De Funès are poles apart in their approach to comedy, they work together amazingly well – there is no sense of the tense rivalry which is noticeable in some of the other memorable De Funès star pairings.

Julien Guiomar plays the principal baddy, Tricatel, with an obvious relish, and the film also features a welcome appearance by Philippe Bouvard, now best known as the host of RTL’s long-running radio show Les Grosses têtes.   At De Funès’s insistence, Claude Gensac appears briefly in the film as Duchemin’s secretary, but she is so heavily made-up that she is barely recognisable.  Director Claude Zidi was reluctant to cast Gensac because of her association with De Funès in the Gendarme films, in which she played the actor’s long-suffering wife.

Shortly before making this film, Louis de Funès suffered a heart attack, and the effect of this is a noticeable change in his style of comedy, which is much gentler, more subtle than previously.   He is still just as effective at making an audience laugh, particularly when his character slips into various disguises (such as a sweet old lady or a camp American tourist).   Coluche provides the physical comedy which De Funès was presumably no longer up to, although he does also get his fair share of witty one-liners.   The combined efforts of these two great comic performers, together with a gag-filled script and a very capable supporting cast, are what make L’Aile ou la cuisse one of French cinema’s most enjoyable comedies.

© filmsdefrance.com 2008

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