Brust oder Keule

As several other readers pointed out, "L'aile ou la cuisse" is probably an integer part of German television culture. At least for those of us who spent a lot of time glued to the screen, as I did as a child... This movie is a very funny satire on modern life and De Funes and Coluche are just great to watch performing. Above all, there's the wonderful 70ies music score of Vladimir Cosma that plunges you right back into those grand days of French comedy. Probably one of the best ones De Funes ever made. Unfortunately, it was also one of his last ones. Another interesting fact is that Pierre Richard was first to play the role of Gerard, the son of Duchemin. He was occupied by another production at that time, so Coluche came in.

"Breast or Leg?" opens the last chapter of Louis de Funès' career before his death in 1983. Following the decline of his health, caused by a stroke in 1975, he looked older and thinner than usual, much different from his last energetic and spectacular performance in "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob". Indeed, he would never have to act 'mad' whether in the crazy or angry sense of the word.

Actually, this was less a medical clause than the actor's personal desire: mortality rhymed with maturity. Yet, from the public's perspective, he was still known for his hilarious tantrums à la Donald Duck, his grimaces, and his unique way to play sneaky individuals, authoritarian with the weak, and submissive with the strong, De Funès created a character most French people could identify with: the average bourgeois little chief. And in France, people went to see a De Funès movie not a film with De Funès. In 1976, they had waited for 3 years, the longest time the box-office champ ever deserted the screen.

I insist on this, because this is one of the cases where you can't judge the film out of its context: De Funès' health called for a more restrained acting and because his absence left some room for newcomers, Claude Zidi the director wanted Pierre Richard, the rising (goofy) face of French Comedy to play De Funès' son. Richard declined the script, unconvinced, so the role went to Coluche, another comedic legend who could at least provide the physical energy usually expected from De Funès. As a matter of fact, it was still hard to steal the veteran's thunder and De Funès didn't play a static role either. Still, the script was in all nuance and soberness, which was in line with the character of Charles Duchemin, food critic and editor of a famous touristic guide, obviously a fictionalization of the 'Michelin'.

This isn't the first time De Funès plays a figure in the world of cooking: he was 10 years earlier the head of "The Great Restaurant" and he was the perfect ambassador of French gastronomy. Here he strikes again as a judge who give restaurants stars that can multiply their benefits by three or ten, either remove them, or worse, give a disastrous critic, causing their bankruptcy. The movie is very attentive to show all the aspects of Duchemin's job, from the office work to the way he takes wine and sauces with syringes and put them in little containers hidden in his suits, and 'accidental' entrances in the kitchens. De Funès can put on his most popular trademarks, disguises: from an old woman to an American tourist etc. And these parts go from appetizing to heart-wrenching moments, swinging between the best and the worst that can ever land in your plate.

It is also a nice touch to have his chauffeur (played by veteran actor Henri Buissières) sitting at the same table during some of these culinary escapades, they're like people who've known each other for a long time. There is also Marcel Dalio ("Rabbi Jacob") as the tailor and Claude Gensac, who played many times De Funès' wife and she makes a touching cameo as his secretary Marguerite. Actually, the film is filled of true and endearing movie characters, on the top of them: Coluche as Gérard, the son, a circus performer who'd better wear his clowns suit than daddy's new Academician uniform. We have here a sweet father-and-son subplot as Gérard doesn't want to hurt his father's feelings and needs his money anyway to make the circus work. And talk about bad luck, just when he finds the guts to tell his father he wants to quit, a new Dutch secretary comes to join them. Her name is Marguerite, like the former, except that she's blonde and younger and very cute, Gérard stays. We know his constant round-trips between the circus and the restaurants won't last and the obligatory confrontation is tackled with humor and a kind of resigned silent anger, a real departure from De Funès' usual antics.

But all the nice touches wouldn't have worked if the film didn't have an antagonist of the same magnitude as Duchemin. And this is the element that sealed the film's ticket to posterity: everyone remembers the name 'Tricatel', the symbol of French industrial food, the nemesis of healthy, traditional, hand-made cooking, an opportunistic CEO, inspired by Jacques Borel, the inventor of 'road-restaurants' along the highways, and who obtained tax decreases for food products. Tricatel built his fortune on highways too, then bought declining restaurant and provided them food from his factories, and one of the most memorable sequences is the discovery of the scientific (but not very orthodox) mechanisms of food-making (calling it cooking would be a blasphemy).

Character actor Julien Guiomar, plays the role of a lifetime, forever remembered as the 'Tricatel' guy, a name that has even supplanted Borel as a synonym of bad food in French pop-culture. And while Guiomar and Coluche can get energetic and physical, in between, De Funès has the crusader's quiet strength and still manages to be funny in his usual register. And the final confrontation in Phillippe Bouvard's show delivers a remarkable showcase of acting and one of De Funès' finest moment when he's guessing the name of a wine.

"Breast or Leg?" is a pivotal movie in De Funès' career and ever since I saw it at the age of 9, I never forgot the whole "Duchemin vs. Tricatel" antagonism and that hilarious clown sequence with Coluche, so typical of De Funès' movies to be appealing for kid and adults, or the adults they become. Also a honorable mention to Vladimir Cosma who signed one of his most memorable scores, starting with the pompous solemnity of French gastronomy and then a light-hearted kitschy tune, as if it was illustrating the real exhilaration of cooking, it's more about fun than stars... which can actually be said about the film.

An excellent comedy which deals with the theme of traditional cuisine versus industrial cuisine. Traditional is personified by the Guide Duchemin (skit on Guide Michelin ) and industrial cuisine by Tricatel ( which I must assume is a skit on Jacques BOREL ) whose awesome director was played by Julien Guiomar. Louis de Funès plays the Michelin man who in secret and under various disguises tests out restaurants who in spite of this recognise who it is. Duchemin ( DE FUNES ) has a son (played by the late great French comedian Michel Colucci or "Coluche" who gives the impression of carrying on in the same line as his father but in reality is more interested in circus-clowning ! All actors give magnificent performances and the plot is brilliant. A most enjoyable moment to be spent, and now it's available on DVD in France at rock-bottom price !

Saw this in an un-subtitled version 8/6/15. Monsieur DeFunes is in fine form as a champion of traditional French gastronomy farcically at war with "industrial" cuisine. The pairing with Coluche works better than a bottle of Bordeaux alongside a plate of bifteck frites. DeFunes' Donald Duck persona complements Coluche's sad clown, the son of DeFunes' character secretly pursuing a career in greasepaint under le big top. The whole thing must have worked for me because I laughed. Here is a very entertaining movie. After having seen several DeFunes movies, I find myself asking once again, why didn't this talent catch on in America, other than very modestly for his work in "Rabbi Jacob"? (1973) The guy was funny. Coluche was not going for the big laughs in the movie here, instead playing in convincing fashion a sympathetic character, as the script intended. I want to see more of his movies, too. We Americans may not appreciate his humor the way the Europeans did, but this film clearly displays his ability as an actor in possession of considerable emotional depth.

Just a word of "advice" at the beginning: Don't watch this film while you're eating. Maybe you wouldn't want to keep your food after the second half of the film!

This film I've seen for the first time as a child. You love Louis de Funès when you're child. He is the best clown you can get. Then you grow older and you think: ah, silly. Then you grow even older and suddenly you see the film again (it's out just now on DVD to celebrate the master's "90th birthday" in the next week) and laugh tears. Yes, the film is silly like so many French comedies, fast, hectic and silly. But still the idea for the script is brilliant and the "message" works today as it did in the 70s.

The most funny thing about the film for a German, though, is the fact that they dubbed more lines than are actually said in the French original. I just realized this with the new DVD. For the first time ever I heard Funès in French and with the subtitles on I wondered after a while why so often there were subtitles but no dialogue. They actually tried to make it even funnier in the German dubbed version with more dialogue when you can't see the lips or when the lips are moved but nothing is said. It came as quite a shock to me. We have weird ways of treating film in this country...

Anyway, this is probably the best film Funès ever did and if you want to see only one of his films, then let it be this one. You won't be disappointed.