Sur un arbre perché (1971)
Directed by Serge Korber

Film Review

A film that looks as if it was written exclusively for Louis de Funes - indeed, it is difficult to imagine anyone else playing his role in this film - Sur un arbre perché is a typical early 1970s tongue-in-cheek satirical comedy.

Although there are a few intensely funny moments, the limitations of setting a story in a car on a tree are all too evident.  It really does look as if the script writer had to work very hard to get any humour out of the situation after the first half an hour.

However, after a brief lull of inertia towards its middle point, the film manages to bounce back with an entertaining satire of the attitudes of French police and the media when handling this kind of situation.  The television people are out in force, filming the rescue with the artificial hyped-up enthusiasm of a live game show.  Meanwhile, the jealous husband of the woman in the stranded car does everything he can to thwart the rescue attempt, whilst the police stand about convinced that there is nothing that can be done…  Thirty years on and the satire is still spot on. Plus ça change...

Strangely, the best part of this film is the opening credits, where a cartoon Louis de Funes performs unspeakable antics as cast and crew are credited.  You spend the first ten minutes of the film wondering what drugs the designer could have been on at the time...

Film Synopsis

The ruthless industrialist Henri Roubier could not be happier.  He has just signed a contract for a major road construction project with an Italian, Mazzini, and stands to make himself a small fortune.  His good mood doesn't last long however.  Caught in a traffic jam, he ends up reluctantly giving a lift to a hitch-hiker and a young woman whose car has just broken down.  Buoyed up by his latest business deal, Roubier doesn't let these minor upsets get him down.  But then disaster strikes.  To make up for lost time, he puts his foot down on the accelerator, misses a turn in the road and goes careering over the edge of a precipice.

Roubier and his passengers would doubtless have been smashed to pieces if they hadn't had the good fortune to land on top of a conveniently situated pine tree.  This miraculous stroke of good fortune doesn't cheer Roubier for long, however.  The tree is perched perilously on the side of a cliff, and below them is a drop of several hundred metres.  For the time being, Roubier and his passengers can see no way out of their present predicament.  They are stranded in a car on top of a tree, knowing that the slightest movement may be sufficient to send them tumbling to their doom on the rocks below...