Film Review
The eighth in a run of film comedies featuring the popular musical troupe
Les Charlots is, arguably their best. At the time - the early 1970s
- French cinema had successfully revived the military comedy, a genre that
had been a mainstay of French cinema in the 1930s
(
Les Gaietés de l'escadron,
Tire au flanc,
Les
Dégourdis de la 11ème).
It followed hot on the heels of Robert Lamoureux's
Mais où
est donc passée la septième compagnie (1973) and preceded
the virtually identical
Soldat Duroc, ça
va être ta fête! (1975). Public antipathy for military
service (particularly among the young) may have been the main reason for
the film's success - it attracted an audience of 4.2 million.
One of the most commercially successful of French filmmakers at the time,
Claude Zidi lives up to his reputation as a mainstream comedy director
par
excellence in this, his fourth collaboration with the Charlots.
The film is a direct sequel to their first shared venture -
Les Bidasses en folie
(1971) - and is just as effective in lobbing comedy grenades in all directions
for our amusement. The sequence in which the fab four drag an oil pipe
through a house and end up giving their commanding officer (the excellent
Jacques Seiler) a skin colour change remains one of the funniest things ever
to grace a French film comedy. After this enjoyable romp, the Charlots
would feature in another seven films, although by the end of the decade they
were well past their prime. When we reach the horror spoof
Les Charlots contre Dracula
(1980) the magic has all but evaporated.
© James Travers 2019
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Claude Zidi film:
La Course à l'échalote (1975)
Film Synopsis
Not everyone is suited for army life - as Gérard, Phil, Jean
and Jean-Guy quickly discover when they begin their military service.
Their immediate superior, Sergeant Bellec, makes no allowances for their
lack of discipline and tendency for making a complete mess of the simplest
of instructions. Not even Bellec could have foreseen the horrific consequences
of his order to have the colonel's swimming pool heated. In no
time at all, the four friends find themselves confined to the camp prison,
and it looks as if this is to remain their place of residence until they
are let out to return to civilian life. Providence comes to the rescue,
in the form of a lorry that crashes into their cell, providing an easy means
of escape. Without delay, the four friends opt for a spot of French
leave and head off for the countryside, hoping that their military escapades
are well and truly over. No such luck. They end up at a remote
farm which, unbeknown to them, is destined to be the target of an imminent
military operation...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.