| Pétrole! Pétrole! (1981) | Comedy |
|
 More French Comedy
Pétrole! Pétrole!
is available from the following on-line retailers:
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Synopsis
Jean-Marie Tardel is the managing director of a leading petroleum
company. His dominance in the marketplace is threatened when a
modest garage attendant, Bernard Bérian, wins a bid to supply
petrol from Africa at a price far below that of his competitors.
To make matters worse, Tardel’s own supplier, the Emir Abdullah, has
announced that he intends to raise the price of his own oil.
During the Emir’s visit to Paris, Tardel does everything he can to win
him round, knowing that if he fails he could be ruined.
Unfortunately, the Emir’s mind is on other matters...
Film Review
One of the few films from director Christian Gion that has just about
stood the test of time, Pétrole! Pétrole! is
a chaotic comedy inspired by the oil crises of the 1970s. In
common with many mainstream French comedies of this period, the
film has a tendency for abject silliness of the worse kind, but amid the dross there are
one or two decent laughs to be had. Despite a script
which appears to have come out of an infants’ school,
Jean-Pierre Marielle and Bernard Blier somehow manage to turn in some
decent performances, although Blier clearly has a job portraying an
oil sheik with any conviction. How to humiliate a great actor, step 1:
stick a tea towel on his head and get him to impersonate an Arab.
The political incorrectness of it all is enough to make you laugh.
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