La Zizanie (1978) - film review

Guillaume Daubray-Lacaze is the mayor of a small provincial town and the owner of a factory which manufactures anti-pollution devices.  When he receives an order from Japan for 3000 of his CX22 smoke-swallowing machines, he is forced to extend his factory into his house.  This does not please his ecologist wife, Bernadette, who, driven to distraction by the noise, leaves Guillaume and runs against him the coming mayoral election...

La Zizanie, one of the best of the later Louis de Funès film comedies, sees the improbable pairing of the great comic actor with Annie Girardot.  Better known as a serious actress in thrillers and dramas, Girardot has also appeared in a number of comedies, but La Zizanie is arguably her most memorable comic outing.  The de Funès-Girardot pairing works wonderfully because their strong personalities are equally matched.  When, in the film, Girardot’s character says she has been married to de Funès character for over 20 years, it rings true.

Most of the entertainment value of this film derives from the situation of the unlikely union of a strong-willed feminist-cum-ecologist and an unscrupulous petty-minded factory manager (the kind of role which de Funès plays best).  By accident or design, the husband-and-wife tussle makes an excellent parody of the real-life conflict between environmentalists and industrialists which began in the mid 1970s and which has become ever-more vociferous since.  In broaching green issues so forcefully (albeit with tongue set firmly in cheek), La Zizanie was years ahead of its time.

The film benefits from another successful alliance – that of de Funès with director Claude Zidi.  Both have a flair for comedy which La Zizanie, their second film together (after L’Aile ou la cuisse), bears out very well.  Amongst the comic situations you are unlikely to forget are: Louis de Funès unwittingly destroying a billiard table whilst playing a game of billiards, Louis de Funès and Annie Girardot going to bed in a bedroom which has been transformed into a factory workshop (complete with lathes, conveyor belts and arc-welding equipment), and Annie Girardot discovering that her treasured pet flesh-eating fish has been frozen to death (and then boiled).  The film goes a little over-the-top in a few places, but it is all well-intentioned fun and makes good therapy for anyone in need of a dose of Funèsque light-relief.

© James Travers 2002

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