Through hard work and devotion, a Frenchman has built himself a famous business. His guide to the best restaurants of France has become a bible for gourmets and connaisseurs. The man's only son, who inherited his father's excellent sense of taste and sense of smell, would make a logical successor. However, the son harbours a secret ambition : he wants to become a circus artist. Will both men pull together in the face of a sly and arrogant enemy ?
There are a number of factors that give this comedy a certain interest. For instance, there is the unusual pairing of two comedians with a very different style, to wit de Funès and Coluche. Both men interact well and create an interesting father-son dynamic. (De Funès, already an older man, gives a fine performance, but one sees the unmistakable traces of the serious illness which was to carry him off. Coluche on the other hand seems to burst with health and promise - and yet he was to die young, in a spectacularly stupid accident. It is a sad reminder of our common vulnerability...) Another remarkable aspect is the subject matter of the comedy, to wit the battle between classic French gastronomy and junkfood.
This second aspect gives the movie a particularly prescient nature, since the junkfood phenomenon ("la malbouffe") has now spread its unlovely tentacles all over Europe. Even countries such as France and Belgium - both of them known for the excellence of their cuisine - have fallen victim to the trend. And it's not going to get better soon. As a Belgian, I keep meeting very young people incapable of dealing with even the most simple or traditional of recipes ; I also keep meeting very young people who, for one reason or another, have taken an irrational dislike to perfectly edible ingredients, such as grey Northsea shrimp. (To quote one budding cook : "Do they carry their poison in their tail ?")
"L'aile ou la cuisse" is pretty funny, which tends to imply that it should get a seven, eight, nine.. star rating. However, I'm subtracting a few stars for a joke that made my hair stand on end. I'm talking about a graphic scene in which an inoffensive secretary falls from a great height and breaks her leg. (Which, by the way, doesn't earn her much sympathy from her employer.) As it so happens, I once witnessed a lady falling from a ladder and landing in pretty much the same way. I still get nightmares from seeing the accident - and that movie triggered the memory. But I won't be the only viewer to dislike that particular scene...
There are a number of factors that give this comedy a certain interest. For instance, there is the unusual pairing of two comedians with a very different style, to wit de Funès and Coluche. Both men interact well and create an interesting father-son dynamic. (De Funès, already an older man, gives a fine performance, but one sees the unmistakable traces of the serious illness which was to carry him off. Coluche on the other hand seems to burst with health and promise - and yet he was to die young, in a spectacularly stupid accident. It is a sad reminder of our common vulnerability...) Another remarkable aspect is the subject matter of the comedy, to wit the battle between classic French gastronomy and junkfood.
This second aspect gives the movie a particularly prescient nature, since the junkfood phenomenon ("la malbouffe") has now spread its unlovely tentacles all over Europe. Even countries such as France and Belgium - both of them known for the excellence of their cuisine - have fallen victim to the trend. And it's not going to get better soon. As a Belgian, I keep meeting very young people incapable of dealing with even the most simple or traditional of recipes ; I also keep meeting very young people who, for one reason or another, have taken an irrational dislike to perfectly edible ingredients, such as grey Northsea shrimp. (To quote one budding cook : "Do they carry their poison in their tail ?")
"L'aile ou la cuisse" is pretty funny, which tends to imply that it should get a seven, eight, nine.. star rating. However, I'm subtracting a few stars for a joke that made my hair stand on end. I'm talking about a graphic scene in which an inoffensive secretary falls from a great height and breaks her leg. (Which, by the way, doesn't earn her much sympathy from her employer.) As it so happens, I once witnessed a lady falling from a ladder and landing in pretty much the same way. I still get nightmares from seeing the accident - and that movie triggered the memory. But I won't be the only viewer to dislike that particular scene...