A young man called Pierre Malaquet is an absent-minded fool with a liking for weird stunts and black humour. Hired by an important publicity firm, he creates one disaster after another. His boss, a canny and cynical businessman, would like to fire him, but sadly enough he made a promise to Pierre's delightful mother...
"Le distrait" is a jolly farce with a lot of gags and slapstick. Not everything works, but the things that do work are funny indeed. Pierre Richard is pretty good as the eccentric, absent-minded protagonist, but in my humble opinion the comedic laurel crown should go to Bernard Blier, who plays his long-suffering boss. (Watch out for the running gag with the said boss romantically courting his lady love, who keeps on cooing "gazoo, gazoo".)
Being a disastrously absent-minded person myself, I recognize at least some of the situations - stepping into the wrong car, walking into the wrong room, carrying the wrong luggage, and so on. Many's the time I've found myself staring at a deserted railway station or standing before a closed gate...
But I digress. "Le distrait" is also a satire on the world of advertising. The tone is set quite early in the movie, with a number of serious-faced experts discussing a publicity campaign while studying a poster with a smiling dog. (Should one say "With brand X our little dog is smiling ?" or rather "With brand X our little dog is smiling again ?") Our young protagonist firmly believes that the public needs to be shocked and surprised ; true to his convictions he organizes discombobulating happenings and bizarre stunts, often with wide-ranging consequences. Some of these ideas and some of these actions feel strangely modern - think internet, think influencers, think bloggers and vloggers.
Not a perfect movie, but a very funny one.
"Le distrait" is a jolly farce with a lot of gags and slapstick. Not everything works, but the things that do work are funny indeed. Pierre Richard is pretty good as the eccentric, absent-minded protagonist, but in my humble opinion the comedic laurel crown should go to Bernard Blier, who plays his long-suffering boss. (Watch out for the running gag with the said boss romantically courting his lady love, who keeps on cooing "gazoo, gazoo".)
Being a disastrously absent-minded person myself, I recognize at least some of the situations - stepping into the wrong car, walking into the wrong room, carrying the wrong luggage, and so on. Many's the time I've found myself staring at a deserted railway station or standing before a closed gate...
But I digress. "Le distrait" is also a satire on the world of advertising. The tone is set quite early in the movie, with a number of serious-faced experts discussing a publicity campaign while studying a poster with a smiling dog. (Should one say "With brand X our little dog is smiling ?" or rather "With brand X our little dog is smiling again ?") Our young protagonist firmly believes that the public needs to be shocked and surprised ; true to his convictions he organizes discombobulating happenings and bizarre stunts, often with wide-ranging consequences. Some of these ideas and some of these actions feel strangely modern - think internet, think influencers, think bloggers and vloggers.
Not a perfect movie, but a very funny one.