Le Cavaleur (1979)

Le Cavaleur is a French comedy romance film first released in 1979, directed by Philippe de Broca.  The film stars Jean Rochefort, Nicole Garcia, Jean-Claude Ventura, Annie Girardot and Lucienne Legrand.  It has also been released under the title: Practice Makes Perfect.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Édouard Choiseul is one of the world’s greatest concert pianists but his professional success barely masks the failings of his private life.  Although now comfortably into his fifties, Édouard cannot help living the life of a manic Don Juan.  He should be content with his beautiful wife Marie-France and their three children, but he isn’t.  Even Muriel, his most recent mistress, a stunning 20-something, isn’t enough to satisfy his animal cravings.  He is drawn to women like a moth to the flame, and often with the same outcome.  One day, he has a surprising reunion with Suzanne, the very first woman he loved.  That was in 1944, the day of the Liberation, when he was only 18 years old.  Now, three decades on, it is Suzanne’s granddaughter that Édouard wants to run off with...

Whilst clearly not in the same league as Philippe de Broca’s exuberant adventure comedies, Le Cavaleur provides a fair quota of laughs, courtesy of Michel Audiard’s witty dialogue and a magnificent turn from the seemingly indefatigable Jean Rochefort (who looks like an advertisement for a well-known brand of long-lasting battery as he zips about like Casanova on steroids).  With such a high calibre cast, the film deserves to be much better than it is – the clichés abound and structurally the film is a complete mess.  However, De Broca’s lightness of touch and Rochefort’s flair for understated comedy somehow conspire to make this an enjoyable romp.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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