Les Compagnons de la marguerite (1967)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky

Film Review

Jean-Pierre Mocky's penchant for anarchic comedy is very much in evidence in Les Compagnons de la marguerite, another of his anti-establishment farces.  This time, the institution which France's most irreverent filmmaker lays into is marriage, which he does so with the mild restraint of a starving chocoholic let loose in a Belgian sweetshop.  Previously, Mocky had poked fun at the Church - in Un drôle de paroissien (1963) - and had extracted no end of urine from the police - in La Grande frousse (1964).  Now he completes his anti-establishment hat-trick by showing how everyone can have a happy married life, by swapping partners whenever the urge arises.  What a brilliant idea.

Having on board enough comedy heavyweights to sink the entire French navy, Les Compagnons de la marguerite is easily one of Jean-Pierre Mocky's funniest films.  There's no shortage of mischief but little of the malice that would creep into his later comic offerings.  Claude Rich is at his comedic best as a forger with the potential to make divorce (and divorce lawyers) a thing of the past, pursued doggedly (or should that be wolfily?) by Francis Blanche, France's most inept police inspector, who is named Leloup and can therefore justify howling like a wolf whenever things go wrong.  Michel Serrault makes an amusing debut in Mocky's manic universe and Rich's wife has her first screen credit, as Catherine Darcy.  Michael Lonsdale and Jean Tissier put in an appearance, respectively near the start and end of their careers, and Mocky's reverence for the cinema heroes of the past is evident elsewhere in the credits: editing was by Marguerite Renoir, cinematography by Léonce-Henri Burel and Henri Diamant-Berger is named as a production associate.

Les Compagnons de la marguerite is classic Mocky and features some of the director's funniest set-piece gags.  The sequence in which the police round up anyone wearing a daisy (including a scout leader) in the vicinity of Notre-Dame Cathedral is only a taster for what is to come.  Ever wonder how pigeon numbers are controlled in Paris?  Mocky has the answer: the police catch them, roast them and eat them!  Francis Blanche's attempts to catch Claude Rich en flagrant délit become increasingly hilarious and culminate with him disguising himself as a bride in a fetching wedding dress - it has to be seen to be believed.  Mocky was inspired to make the film having gone through the messy and expensive process of a divorce himself.   It's surprising that his proposal for an amicable, cost-effective alternative has never caught on - or maybe it has...?

Film Synopsis

An expert in restoring old manuscripts at the National Library, Jean-Louis Matouzec is not a happily married man, but his wife Françoise refuses to give him a divorce.  One day, he has a brainwave: to find another unhappily married couple who would be prepared to swap partners.  The man would marry Françoise and the woman would become Matouzec's new wife.  Matouzec can then pop along to the town hall and use his own particular skills to falsify the entries in the wedding registry. To find such a couple, Matouzec places an ad in the local newspaper.  So that the two couples can recognise one another, they must each wear a daisy.  When the local police department comes across the ad they mistakenly believe that a new gang of crooks is about to be formed, so Inspector Leloup is assigned to start an investigation.  A short while later Leloup is surprised when his wife leaves him for Matouzec, and is even more surprised when Françoise turns up to take his wife's place...