Un monsieur de compagnie (1964) - film review

Brought up in the lap of luxury by his wealthy grandfather, Antoine  found from an early age that he could have anything he wanted, without exerting the slightest effort.  By the time he is a young man, he has elevated indolence to a fine art.  But what is Antoine to do when his generous benefactor dies, taking his vast fortune with him?  Fortunately, he can always fall back on his charm.  It is this, the sole gift that nature has endowed him with, which allows him to win his way into the affections of Balthazar and Nicole.  But even they grow tired of his laziness in the end...

Filmmaker Philippe de Broca started out as an assistant to such luminaries as Henri Decoin, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut.  His first movie as a director was Les Jeux de l’amour (1959), followed by Le Farceur (1960) and L’Amant de cinq jours (1961), all contemporary light comedies featuring the multi-talented dancer-actor Jean-Pierre Cassel.  Then came Cartouche (1962), his first smash hit with Jean-Paul Belmondo.  De Broca’s next film, released in November 1964, was Un monsieur de compagnie (a.k.a. Male Companion), a Franco-Italian production adapted from a novel by André Couteaux.

Once again, Jean-Pierre Cassel shines, as a young man who holds the philosophy that ’laziness is the mother of all virtue’ close to his heart.  Here Cassel is surrounded by a veritable harem of delights that includes Irina Demick, Annie Girardot, Valérie Lagrange, Catherine Deneuve and Italian beauty Sandra Milo (seen in Classe tous risques, La Jument verte, Le Miroir à deux faces and Un temoin dans la ville).  The rest of the supporting cast is just as distinguished and includes comic performers Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean-Claude Brialy, international actor Marcel Dalio and Italian star Adolfo Celi (seen in de Broca’s L’Homme de rio and in the James Bond adventure Thunderball as the villain Emilio Largo).

De Broca develops an old idea into a whirl of nonsense that has the frenzy of an old-time farce, although towards the middle you get the impression that the director may have adopted the hero’s philosophy as his own.  With its random laughs, the film often falls into aimless nonsense as the hero fumbles his way through various Italian adventures.  Nevertheless, this film is all in all an absurd comedy of manners, directed with panache by de Broca, a visual musician with a dynamic and spectacular style that has retained its popular appeal, both in France and the US.

© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium) 2012

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