Louis de Funès shines in a hilarious farce about a rich businessman who gets embroiled in ever more convoluted complications with regard to both his money and his family life. De Funès pretty much gives a masterclass in comedy. Watch the scene where a man states "You, sir, are a scoundrel" and where he proudly answers "Yes". Look at his face, listen to his voice : it is the very essence of comedy.
"Oscar" is also notable for its well-oiled and clever plot, with its sense of escalating comic catastrophe.
The movie is set in a grand house decorated in that specific pseudo-modern style for "nouveaux riches" proper to the sixties and seventies. It may look like the surreal nightmare of an interior decorator who ate too much lobster puffs, but I can assure you that the style really existed : I still remember a few Belgian examples, mainly in Wallonia. One of these houses had a tiled floor criss-crossed by canals which housed large goldfish. Every now and then a visitor would break or sprain an ankle by falling into one of the canals, but : interior design !
If you want to gaze upon another luxuriant example I can refer you to another De Funès film, to wit "Jo !" (a French adaptation of "The gazebo").
"Oscar" is also notable for its well-oiled and clever plot, with its sense of escalating comic catastrophe.
The movie is set in a grand house decorated in that specific pseudo-modern style for "nouveaux riches" proper to the sixties and seventies. It may look like the surreal nightmare of an interior decorator who ate too much lobster puffs, but I can assure you that the style really existed : I still remember a few Belgian examples, mainly in Wallonia. One of these houses had a tiled floor criss-crossed by canals which housed large goldfish. Every now and then a visitor would break or sprain an ankle by falling into one of the canals, but : interior design !
If you want to gaze upon another luxuriant example I can refer you to another De Funès film, to wit "Jo !" (a French adaptation of "The gazebo").