Film Review
This popular comedy-drama offers a characteristically Gallic assault on
global capitalism, making the comparison between prostitution and big
business a little too glibly to be totally convincing but the
analogy holds. Francis Veber's script and Edouard Molinaro's direction are up
to scratch and
Le
Téléphone rose manages to entertain whilst making
a few very effective digs at the kind of morally dubious business practices
that have become all too commonplace these days. Veber and
Molinaro had previously collaborated on the phenomenonally succesful comedy
L'Emmerdeur
(1973) and would later pool their resources on
La Cage aux folles (1978), a
film that scaled new heights in camp comedy.
Le Téléphone rose
would have been a pretty forgettable film were it not for the sizzling onscreen
chemistry between its two leading performers, Pierre Mondy and Mireille
Darc, who are particularly well-served by Veber's gag-laden script.
Darc is predictably cast as the traditional 'tart with a heart' (
la pute au grand coeur) and Mondy
is the sucker who falls for her as part of Michael Lonsdale's
evil plan for world domination (clearly, Londsale is already preparing
for the part of the Bond villain he would later play in
Moonraker). Both
Mondy and Darc are superb in this film,
bringing respectively humanity and glamour to a fairly mundane story that is
dripping with calculated cynicism.
© James Travers, Willems Henri 2010
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Next Edouard Molinaro film:
L'Homme pressé (1977)
Film Synopsis
Benoît Castejac is the owner of a small factory in Toulouse that
has run into financial difficulties. He knows that the only way
to save the firm that he inherited from his father is to merge with a
larger American corporation, Fielding. Invited to Paris for a
business lunch, Castejac meets Fielding's public relations man,
Levêque, who introduces him to his niece, Christine.
Castejac does not know that Christine is in fact a call girl, who was
hired to distract him into signing an agreement which favours
Fielding's owner, Morrisson. The ruse works a treat and Castejac
has to return to his factory with the news that a quarter of his
workforce is to be axed. But worse is to come. Fielding's
engineering consultant, Delorme, discovers that Castejac's business is
heavily in debt and union leader Bastide is gearing up for a protracted
strike. As his world begins to fall apart, Castejac becomes
increasingly obsessed with Christine and is determined to see her
again...
© James Travers
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