Summary
When his daughter, Maria, is kidnapped shortly after her arrival in Mexico, a wealthy
business man, Alexandre Bens, engages a private detective, Campana, to find her.
When Campana’s efforts prove fruitless, Bens turns to a psychologist who suggests that
the only way to find Maria is to send someone who is equally unlucky as she is.
The ideal man for the job is the company accountant, François Perrin, who has a
reputation as a walking disaster area. Reluctantly, Campana agrees to return to
Mexico to continue his investigation, with his new sidekick, Perrin. It is not long
before Campana wishes he had stayed at home...
Review
Having established himself as a screenwriter, responsible for some hugely successful French
comic films (including La
Cage aux folles) , Francis Veber turned to directing, mainly through frustration
at not having enough control over a film once it had gone into production. His second
film is significant in that not only was it a huge success and has since become a popular
classic, it was also the first occasion that Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu,
two of the most prominent figures in French cinema at the time, were brought together
on screen.
At the time, Pierre Richard was one of the most popular comic actors in France, renowned
for his excessive physical style of comedy. Veber’s biggest challenge was to restrain
Richard’s comic exuberance and draw out Depardieu’s talent as a comedian, in order that
the partnership could work. Both actors rose to the challenge and the result is
one of the most successful comic pairings in cinema history. After La Chèvre
, the winning Richard-Depardieu double act was repeated in two of Veber's subsequent
films, Les Compères. (1983) and Les Fugitifs (1986).
La Chèvre may not be Veber’s best film from a technical point of view, but
it is certainly one of his best written and most entertaining. The Mexican location
gives the film an expensive-looking gloss which, at the time, was comparatively rare in
French comedies. However, the film’s main selling point is the quite remarkable
Richard-Depardieu pairing. As happened with Louis de Funes and Bourvil in Le
Corniaud and La Grande vadrouille (the two most popular French films of the
1960s), La Chèvre allows the two actors to naturally play off each other,
so that the comedy feels fresh and spontaneous.
One thing that works well in this film - and which is a sign of Veber’s genius as a screenwriter
- is the way in which the spectator is constantly wrong-footed and hence is nearly always
surprised by what happens. Halfway into the film, we think we know the characters
played by Richard and Depardieu so well that we can anticipate what is going to happen
next. Sometimes we get it right, and the obvious joke ensues. However, more
often than not we get it wrong and the joke either fails to materialise or, more usually,
a totally different - and far better - joke arrives in its place. Richard’s personality
- which has a bizarre manic unpredictability about it - allows Veber to use this comic
device to its full potential and thereby conjure up some belt-burstingly hilarious comedy.
The film was remade in America in 1991 as Pot Luck, a pale immitation of the original
film which failed at the box office.
© James Travers 2003
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