Anachronistic meets anarchic. This things still got some shelf life, although I do think its potency is somewhat diluted by time. And also perhaps by translation, I would bet there's some clever wordplay going on in parts that were lost upon me. I remember wondering what modern French audiences would think if they ran across "Airplane." Not a fair comparison, but not far off the mark...
The dual performance of Jean-Paul Belmondo is definitely a couple of cuts above what you would expect for a film that's basically a laugh lark. I mean the guy is often called upon to take splashy pratfalls, but has to play both virile playboy and nebbish nancy-boy. Yet if you take a still from any scene in the film you could immediately discern which one was on screen.
As Bob St. Clair, his overly self-satisfied smile would crack me up, something about its goofy gallantry reminded me of a sadly departed friend. Ken Hamilton, RIP. You shoulda met him...
Anyways back to the film...
I did enjoy the surreal slips between the film itself and then the book being created within the film. The first one I think was on a beach as the housecleaner blithely waltzes through soldiers storming the sands, vacuuming only to enter a door and voila. Additionally latter battles between the author and his protagonist and/or protagonista mostly worked for me. Though they dipped in shtick.
Afterwards, I watched some of it over with my young (3-year old) twin boys, and they liked it, I mean come on those mariachis with the mobile theme music, they were worth the rental alone. And um yeah, Jacqueline Bisset is beauty personified in this...
Not a lost classic in my book, nor auteur action...but le funny, certainmont.
6/10
The dual performance of Jean-Paul Belmondo is definitely a couple of cuts above what you would expect for a film that's basically a laugh lark. I mean the guy is often called upon to take splashy pratfalls, but has to play both virile playboy and nebbish nancy-boy. Yet if you take a still from any scene in the film you could immediately discern which one was on screen.
As Bob St. Clair, his overly self-satisfied smile would crack me up, something about its goofy gallantry reminded me of a sadly departed friend. Ken Hamilton, RIP. You shoulda met him...
Anyways back to the film...
I did enjoy the surreal slips between the film itself and then the book being created within the film. The first one I think was on a beach as the housecleaner blithely waltzes through soldiers storming the sands, vacuuming only to enter a door and voila. Additionally latter battles between the author and his protagonist and/or protagonista mostly worked for me. Though they dipped in shtick.
Afterwards, I watched some of it over with my young (3-year old) twin boys, and they liked it, I mean come on those mariachis with the mobile theme music, they were worth the rental alone. And um yeah, Jacqueline Bisset is beauty personified in this...
Not a lost classic in my book, nor auteur action...but le funny, certainmont.
6/10