Summary
Benoît Castejac is the owner of a small factory in Toulouse that
has run into financial difficulties. He knows that the only way
to save the firm that he inherited from his father is to merge with a
larger American corporation, Fielding. Invited to Paris for a
business lunch, Castejac meets Fielding’s public relations man,
Levêque, who introduces him to his niece, Christine.
Castejac does not know that Christine is in fact a call girl, who was
hired to distract him into signing an agreement which favours
Fielding’s owner, Morrisson. The ruse works a treat and Castejac
has to return to his factory with the news that a quarter of his
workforce is to be axed. But worse is to come. Fielding’s
engineering consultant, Delorme, discovers that Castejac’s business is
heavily in debt and union leader Bastide is gearing up for a protracted
strike. As his world begins to fall apart, Castejac becomes
increasingly obsessed with Christine and is determined to see her
again...
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium)
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium)
Review
This popular comedy-drama offers a characteristically Gallic assault on
global capitalism, making the comparison between prostitution and big
business a little too glibly to be totally convincing. Still,
Francis Veber’s script and Edouard Molinaro’s direction are up to
scratch and Le
Téléphone rose manages to entertain whilst making
a few effective digs at the kind of morally dubious business practices
that have become all too commonplace these days. Veber and
Molinaro had previously collaborated on the hit comedy L’Emmerdeur
(1973) and would later pool their resources on La Cage aux folles (1978), a
film that scaled new heights in camp comedy.
Le Téléphone rose would have been a pretty forgettable film were it not for the onscreen chemistry between its two leading performers, Pierre Mondy and Mireille Darc. Darc is predictably cast as the tart with a heart (la pute au grand coeur) and Mondy is the sucker who falls for her as part of Michael Lonsdale’s evil plan for world domination (clearly, Londsale is already preparing for the part of the Bond villain he would later play in Moonraker). Both Mondy and Darc are superb in this film, bringing respectively humanity and glamour to a drab story that is dripping with calculated cynicism.
© James Travers 2010
Write a review for this film...
Le Téléphone rose would have been a pretty forgettable film were it not for the onscreen chemistry between its two leading performers, Pierre Mondy and Mireille Darc. Darc is predictably cast as the tart with a heart (la pute au grand coeur) and Mondy is the sucker who falls for her as part of Michael Lonsdale’s evil plan for world domination (clearly, Londsale is already preparing for the part of the Bond villain he would later play in Moonraker). Both Mondy and Darc are superb in this film, bringing respectively humanity and glamour to a drab story that is dripping with calculated cynicism.
© James Travers 2010
Write a review for this film...
User Comments
Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- The best French comedy-dramas
- Other French films of the 1970s
- The best French films of the 1970s
- Other French comedy-dramas
- Biography and films of Edouard Molinaro
To buy this film
Check DVD and Blu-ray availability:
Credits
- Director: Edouard Molinaro
- Script: Francis Veber
- Photo: Gérard Hameline
- Music: Vladimir Cosma
- Cast: Mireille Darc (Christine), Pierre Mondy (Benoît Castejac), Françoise Prévost (Françoise Castejac), Michael Lonsdale (Morrison), Daniel Ceccaldi (Levêgue), Gérard Hérold (Delorme), Raoul Curet, Robert Dalban, Jean-Pierre Garrigues, Lucienne Legrand
- Country: France
- Language: French
- Runtime: 95 min
- Aka: The Pink Telephone
Similar films
If you like this film you may also like the following:- Le Bonheur (1965)
- Le Boucher (1970)
- La Chambre verte (1978)
- Le Colonel Chabert (1994)
- Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)
- Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray (1962)
- Le Journal d’une femme de chambre (1964)
- Le Mari de la coiffeuse (1990)
- Marianne de ma jeunesse (1955)
- Le Mouton enragé (1974)
- Out 1: Nolie me Tangere (1971)
- Un coeur en hiver (1992)
- La Veuve Couderc (1971)
- Le Vieux fusil (1975)
Important French filmmakers






- François Truffaut
- Jean Cocteau
- Abel Gance
- Jacques Demy
- Jacques Rivette
- Jean Renoir
- Jean Grémillon
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Marcel Carné
- Claude Chabrol
- Claude Lelouch
- Réné Clair
- Marcel Pagnol
- Eric Rohmer
- François Ozon
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Bertrand Blier
- Claire Denis
- Jacques Tati
- Jacques Audiard
- Maurice Pialat
- Robert Guédiguian
To buy Le Téléphone rose:

Comedy / Drama / Romance


