Film Review
After the phenomenal success of their earlier collaborations -
Le Grand blond
avec une chaussure noire (1972) and
Le Retour du grand blond
(1974), director Yves Robert and comic actor Pierre Richard teamed up for
more of the same - a spirited comedy romp that extracts as much humour as
it can from its zanily over-convoluted plot.
Le Jumeau may not
be in the league of those previous Robert-Richard collaborations (both classics
of French film comedy) but it is a good-natured non-stop farce that allows
Richard ample scope to show just why he was one of the most popular French
comic performers of his day.
Today, Robert is most widely regarded for his 1990 diptych
La Gloire de mon père
/
Le Château de ma mère,
a bittersweet account of the childhood of the playwright-cineaste Marcel
Pagnol, but before this he was one of the pillars of mainstream French cinema,
with a particular penchant for riotous comedy (he was also an actor of some
ability). The films he made with Pierre Richard were among his most
commercially successful, and few other directors employed the actor's immense
comedic talents so skilfully.
Le Jumeau may not have impressed
the critics but it still managed to attract an audience of 1.7 million.
With the dual role offered by
Le Jumeau, Richard impresses not only
with his unflagging comic flair but also with his talent as an actor, creating
two contrasting personas for the supposed twins. It is a performance
that must rate has one of his best, despite being somewhat handicapped by
a needlessly complicated script that goes completely off the rails towards
the end. The film isn't great, but it stands up better today than its
American remake
Two Much (1995), which was directed by Fernando Trueba,
with Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith and Daryl Hannah in the principal
roles.
© James Travers 2019
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Yves Robert film:
La Gloire de mon père (1990)
Film Synopsis
Matthias Duval is a 30-something businessman with a fatal addiction to gambling.
A night spent at the poker table during his holiday on the Riviera ends with
him being seriously out of pocket, but then - for once - Lady Luck smiles
on him. As soon as he catches sight of Liz Kerner, a rich and beautiful
American, he knows he is in love. They spend the night together and
it is then that Liz reveals she has a twin sister named Betty. Naturally,
Matthias is keen to make Betty's acquaintance, and when he sees her Cupid
repeats the same trick on him: he is love-struck for a second time.
Matthias knows that he cannot have both women for himself - that would be
greedy. So, he invents for himself an identical twin brother, Mathieu,
and it is as Mathieu that he begins making love to Betty. In contrast
to the out-going adventurer Mathias, Matthieu is a mild-mannered intellectual.
They may look the same, but they are very different in their tastes and behaviour
- at least that is the fiction which Matthias hopes to keep up.
Unbeknown to our hero, Liz and Betty are both equally keen to get married
so that they can fulfil the terms of a will made by their parents, who died
a few weeks previously. The first of the sisters to marry will inherit
the bulk of their parents' vast fortune, which is how Mathias suddenly finds
himself with two offers of marriage. No sooner has he tied the knot
with Betty than he is coerced by Liz into marrying her, in return for a generous
monthly allowance.
Just when things couldn't be going better for Mathias he receives an unexpected
visit from the Kerner family lawyer, Ernest Volpinex. To his horror,
Mathias is about to discover that his deception has been uncovered.
By assuming a false identity, he has committed both fraud and bigamy.
A heated argument with the lawyer ends with Mathias accidentally killing
his tormenter...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.