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La Vengeance du serpent à plumes
1984 Adventure / Comedy
Review
Having proven to the world that he is an actor of no mean talent in Claude Berri’s Tchao,
pantin (1983), Coluche appears totally wasted in this ill-conceived, badly realised
Gérard Oury offering. A pale imitation of the lavish adventure comedies of
Philippe de Broca, La Vengeance du serpent à plumes is little more than
series of hackneyed action stunts and madcap comic situations, assembled with the skill
and dexterity of someone attempting to create a matchstick model of the Eiffel Tower whilst
wearing a pair of boxing gloves. It is scarcely credible that the film was written
and directed by Gérard Oury and Danièle Thompson, the team which previously
bought us such triumphs as La
Grand vadrouille (1966) and Les
Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973). Not only is the plot totally lacking in
coherence (which, admittedly, is not too great a sin for a comic farce), it is also singularly
unfunny – in fact, it barely passes muster as comedy. None of the principal characters
in the film is remotely believable (Coluche presumably had his hair died yellow to look
like comic book hero Tintin), and its attempt to get its audience to sympathise with terrorists
in the latter part of the film must have been misguided at the time, and a thousand times
more so since the September 11th atrocity. A bad film – in every sense of
the word.
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Director:
Gérard Oury
Starring: Coluche, Maruschka Detmers, Luis Rego, Farid Chopel, Josiane Balasko Synopsis
On the death of his grandmother, odd-job man Loulou Dupin is delighted to learn that he
has inherited a large Parisian apartment. He hastens to Paris to view the apartment,
hoping to sell it as soon as he can. He is surprised to find that the apartment
is occupied by two attractive young women, Laura and Valérie. Unbeknown to
Loulou, the latter belong to a terrorist cell which is using the apartment as a headquarters
for their operations. Laura flirts with Loulou to distract him, whilst her murderous
friends try – without success – to put him out of the way. By the time Loulou learns
the truth, Laura and her friends have disappeared. Accompanied by his best friend
Alvaro, a vindictive Loulou pursues Laura to Mexico. There, he discovers that the
terrorists are preparing for the most spectacular coup of their career...
Credits
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