Comme la lune (1977)
Directed by Joël Séria

Film Review

Writer-director Joël Séria ruffled more than a few conservative feathers with his boldly uninhibited reflections on the sexual mores of his time.  After his lively ménage-à-trois comedy Charlie et ses deux nénettes (1973) and even raunchier sex comedy Les Galettes de Pont-Aven (1975), he gallantly rode into even more controversial territory with Marie-poupée (1976).  It was this latter film, an honest but highly provocative examination of fetishism, that effectively destroyed Séria's reputation and made him persona non grata amongst a large section of the press and cinema-going public.  He made three more film - comparatively lightweight comedies - before giving up in the late 1980s, although he did return in 2010 with Mumu, a somewhat lacklustre period drama.   

Comme la lune was the film that Séria made directly after Marie-poupée and the difference from his earlier work is immediately apparent.  Mindful not to cause himself further grief with the critics, the film's author merely turns in a fairly routine sex comedy, one that pales in comparison with his earlier Les Galettes de Pont-Aven, to which it could well pass as a sequel.  The star of that earlier film, Jean-Pierre Marielle, returns in a similar role as a 40-something libertine with an over-active libido and a staggering lack of self-awareness, the kind who negotiates the male menopause as elegantly as an inebriated, one-eyed elephant on stilts.

Ably supported by Marco Perrin, Sophie Daumier and Dominique Lavanant, Marielle is at his comedic best and his presence makes this one of Séria's most entertaining films, even if it is nowhere near as iconclastic as the director's previous offerings.  Most of the situations and gags are crude and predictable but with such a vivacious cast there is no shortage of fun (the civilised dinner party that turns into a punch-up is hilarious).  The male mid-life crisis is a gold-mine for humour, and in this amusing little comedy Séria mines it ruthlessly.

Film Synopsis

Roger Pouplard, a forty-something refrigerator repairman with Alpha Male tendencies, leaves his respectable wife and daughter so that he can live with his nubile young mistress Nadia.  After a disastrous dinner party with his polite, middle-class parents, Roger takes Nadia for a holiday at the seaside resort of Deauville, and it is here that he meets up with an old friend of his, Chanteau, who is accompanied by his attractive secretary Yvette.  When Chanteau takes an interest in Nadia, he soon gets into a fight with Roger, which results in the latter being hospitalised.  After his friend goes off with Nadia, Roger wastes no time beginning a new affair with Yvette...