Scout toujours... (1985)
Directed by Gérard Jugnot

Film Review

Gérard Jugnot first found fame as part of the Équipe du splendid comedy troupe that included Thierry Lhermitte, Michel Blanc, Christian Clavier, Marie-Anne Chazel and Josiane Balasko.  This talented ensemble notched up some notable screen hits, including Les Bronzés (1978) and Le Père Noël est une ordure (1982).  In common with most of the members of this troupe, he went on to become a highly successful solo performer and by the 1990s his was one of the most familiar faces in mainstream French cinema.  His sympathetic, everyman persona and natural fair for comedy made him a bankable star, but what he really wanted to do was direct his own films, an opportunity that came his way in 1984 with Pinot simple flic.  Jugnot's follow up to this surprisingly successful directing debut was another low-key comedy, this time revolving around the trials and tribulations of a hopelessly inept scoutmaster - a classic 'fish out of water' comedy.

Despite its seemingly anodyne subject, Scout toujours proved to be another box office hit for its director, attracting an audience in France of 1.8 million.  A cut above most family-targeted French comedies of this era, the film carries faint echoes of May '68 and serves up a typically Gallic bout of authority-bashing, with Jugnot's central protagonist (a scout master struggling and failing to assert his authority over a fearsome brood of mischief-makers) on the receiving end, often with hilarious results.  There's no great sophistication in the script but the film, to its credit, avoids the off-putting silliness and sentiment milking that sometimes crept into Jugnot's subsequent films.  Scout toujours is a good-natured and humorous little fable that offers something for all age groups, although its main asset has to be its stunning Lozère location, one of the most picturesque regions in southern France - a tempting future holiday destination for anyone watching the film.

Film Synopsis

In the spring of 1965, a scout group from Paris decide they have had enough of their authoritarian leader and apply their scout cunning to the matter of his disposal.  This creates a vacancy which Jean-Baptiste Foucret reluctantly has to fill, in spite of the fact that he could not be more ill-suited to assume the mantle of scout leader.  A man in his mid-forties he is a naturally shy and retiring individual, not someone who is calculated to instil discipline in a pack of unruly boy scouts.  Even so, Jean-Baptiste rises to the challenge and sets out to take charge of a summer camp, heedless of the countless horrors that lie in store for him.

Things do not start as well as they might have done - the fiends in scout's uniforms begin with a nice spot of arson, setting fire to their coach and virtually derailing the entire enterprise.  Jean-Baptiste is never one to admit defeat, however, even when the odds are stacked sorely against him.  They may have no transport but the party can still continue its cross-country expedition on foot - and what an expedition it proves to be.  The troublesome brats miss not a single occasion to inflict misery on their hapless leader, with practical jokes that only a genuinely warped mind could conceive.

In the end, this torrent of humiliations proves too much for Jean-Baptiste and he makes up his mind to cut his losses and head back home to rejoin his anxious mother.  It is now that the boys under his charge realise they have gone too far.  Shamefaced, they round on their erstwhile victim and persuade him to stay.  Jean-Baptiste is too tender-hearted to turn his nose up at this seemingly genuine attempt at reconciliation, and so he agrees to continue leading his flock of budding terrorists and sociopaths.  In the end, he manages to win round his former tormenters and ultimately triumphs as the hero of the hour...