Film Review
After the runaway success of
Le Corniaud
(1965) and
La Grande vadrouille
(1966), two of the most popular French comedies ever made, Louis de Funès
was not only France's most popular comic actor, he was already set up to
become the country's biggest cultural icon.
At the height of his glory it was fitting that he should revisit the stage play that was instrumental
in turning him from a busy but fairly unknown actor into a stupendous box
office magnet. That play was Claude Magnier's
Oscar, a three-act
comedy that had first been staged at the Théâtre de l'Athénée
in Paris in 1958, with Pierre Mondy, Jean-Paul Belmondo (then a compete unknown)
and Maria Pacôme in the three principal roles. It was only when
de Funès took over the lead from Pierre Mondy in 1959 that the play
became a hit, ensuring that it was only a matter of time (four years to be
precise) before the actor achieved the stardom that had so far eluded him.
Between 1959 and 1972, de Funès starred in four stage productions
of Magnier's play - all sell-outs - playing the irascible businessman Bertrand
Barnier over six hundred times.
With
Oscar being such a success on the stage, it was inevitable that
it would end up being made into a film, and the honour of directing this
film fell to Édouard Molinaro, a young filmmaker who already had a
dozen credits to his name, mostly low budget crime dramas such as
Un témoin dans la
ville (1960). Molinaro's experience of comedy was limited -
he had recently directed Brigitte Bardot and Anthony Perkins in the fairy
routine comedy
Une ravissante
idiote (1964) - but the popularity of the two films he directed with
Louis de Funès (
Oscar was immediately followed by
Hibernatus) led him to helm several
other notable comedies -
L'Emmerdeur
(1973),
Le Téléphone
rose (1975) and the cult phenomenon that was
La Cage aux folles (1978).
The fact that
Oscar was one of their most popular films (it attracted
an audience of 6.1 million in France), belies the fact that Molinaro and
de Funès had an extremely poor working relationship. The actor's
insecurities caused him to lose confidence in the director and resulted
in a break in the filming that came close to derailing the project altogether.
The comfort blanket that de Funès invariably needed to perform at
his best was on this occasion provided by his coterie of friends Claude Gensac,
Mario David and Paul Préboist, who supported him (both morally and
professionally) in much of his work.
Mario David reprises the role of the gorilla-like masseur he had created
for the original 1958 production of
Oscar and subsequent stagings
featuring de Funès. Paul Préboist appeared in well over
a hundred comedies and, looking like the human equivalent of a well-used
punchbag, was the perfect foil for the pugnacious de Funès.
Playing de Funès's on-screen wife for the first time was Claude Gensac,
beginning a partnership that would endure right up until the comedy giant's
final film,
Le
Gendarme et les Gendarmettes (1982). In total, Gensac appeared
in ten of de Funès's films, usually as his implausibly genteel wife,
most famously Josépha Cruchot in the
Gendarme series.
De Funès was less than happy with the casting of Claude Rich in the
other principal male role - the aspiring son-in-law who resorts to embezzlement
to win his employer's daughter. Rich's success in other hit films such
as Georges Lautner's
Les
Tontons flingueurs (1963) aggravated de Funès's insecurities
and led to considerable tension on the set, although this worked to the film's
advantage, adding a frisson to the antagonistic relationship between their
two characters (the scene in which Rich hijacks his co-star's breakfast is
a classic). In fact, this is one of the more successful 'double acts'
in Louis de Funès's filmography because there is a genuine feeling
of contained mutual enmity beneath the simulated malice.
Oscar is about a thoroughly venal specimen of humanity (i.e. company
director) being driven to the brink of insanity by his intolerance and mistrust
of others. It is Funès's real neuroses and prejudices - exacerbated
by his unhappy relationship with the director and certain cast members -
that give the film its savage sense of reality and make it so irresistibly
funny. Otherwise it would have just have been a silly Feydeau-like
farce or, worse, a dull comedy like its 1991 American remake directed by
John Landis, in which Sylvester Stallone proves that, whatever other talents
he may have, he is no substitute for Louis de Funès.
Rather than hide the theatrical origins of the film, Molinaro goes out of
his way to emphasise this fact. The story plays out in real time and
is confined mostly to one enormous set, a brilliant creation from designer
Georges Wakewitch which makes de Funès's character look like a housefly
buzzing about in a jar. Some imaginative camerawork, tracking vertically
and horizontally around the spacious main set, complements the screwball
performances and at no point does the film feel static or stagy. Molinaro
and his team create an impression of constant motion, so that the film soon
resembles a clockwork toy going berserk.
It is the classic French farce, with a seemingly endless barrage of mix-ups
and misunderstandings resulting in some all too predictable humour (the 'mistaken
suitcase gag' is exploited to ludicrous extremes), but Louis de Funès
grabs it with both hands and turns it into the comedy equivalent of Shakespeare's
King Lear. He isn't just funny - hilariously so in the famous
sequence where he mimes a cartoonish self-mutilation after the final humiliation
- he also brings a genuine pathos to the film.
Oscar is
a relentlessly funny film and what makes it so hilarious is not the scripted
comedy but de Funès's all-too-convincing portrayal of a nasty man's
descent into Hell. When the tyrant falls, brought down by his own self-interested
mischief, we can either jeer or laugh. De Funès invariably makes
us laugh.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Edouard Molinaro film:
Hibernatus (1969)
Film Synopsis
Bertrand Barnier is a rich businessman whose pride and joy is his designer
house in which he leads a tranquil life with his wife Germaine and daughter
Colette. Barnier's well-ordered life is about to be yanked into troubled
waters when one of his employees, Christian Martin, shows up first thing
one morning with two unreasonable demands. Martin not only wants to
marry his boss's daughter, he also wants a big increase in his salary - to
keep his future wife in the manner to which she has grown accustomed.
If there is one thing that Bertrand Barnier cannot tolerate at this early
hour it is bare-faced importunity, so naturally he says 'non' to both of
Christian's requests.
Not one to be beaten, the young man continues trying to make a good impression
on his boss by telling him that he has amassed a sizeable fortune by embezzling
the company's funds. With his ill-gotten gains, Christian has bought
a suitcase full of precious jewels, which he now offers to Barnier in exchange
for his daughter. Of course, this puts a completely different complexion
on the matter! To get his money back, Barnier has no choice but to
agree to the marriage. The revelation that his daughter is pregnant
removes any doubts in the businessman's mind that he is doing the right thing.
Unfortunately, what neither men knows is that Christian's girlfriend has
deceived him over her identity. The woman in question, Jacqueline,
was lying when she told Christian that her father was Barnier. Before
this fact is revealed to him, the businessman has another shock in store:
it seems his daughter Colette
is pregnant, but by his former chauffeur
Oscar, who went off on a polar expedition after being dismissed. Barnier
now has two problems to contend with - finding a suitable husband for his
daughter to avoid a scandal and recovering the money that Christian has stolen
from him. Is it possible that he can kill two birds with one stone...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.