Fröhliche Ostern

A hilariously inveterate womanizer (Jean-Paul Belmondo) drops his wife (Marie Laforet)off at the airport so she can go away for Easter weekend. He immediately picks up a young woman (Sophie Marceau), who has just had a fight with her married boyfriend. He gets her back to his apartment and is preparing for a long weekend of hot stranger sex, but then his wife suddenly returns, and he has to make up a spur-of-the-moment story of the young girl being his long-lost daughter. The girl plays along, but this leads to a whole series of increasingly ridiculous lies and comical situations (such as when her real mother shows up).

This is an old-fashioned European comedy that tends to differ from more modern Hollywood comedies in that the protagonist does not have to be sympathetic, but can be a philandering cad or hypocritical blow-hard. Belmondo though, a legend in French movies since his seminal appearance in Godard's "Breathless", does make his character quite charming, even though he's a chronically philandering cad who tells one bald-faced lie after another. Marie Laforet is also good as his wife, who keeps a good poker-face throughout, so you're never sure how much, if any, of his ridiculous stories she is actually buying, or whether she is just torturing him for her own amusement. Sophie Marceau shows off her spectacular, nubile breasts quite a bit (mostly just to tease her lecherous much older suitor), but she also easily goes toe-to-toe with Belmondo acting-wise (as she would the next year with Gerard Depardieu in "Police"), which is pretty impressive for an actress who (if IMDb dates can be believed) was only 17 or 18 at the time.

Continental European movies at that time really specialized in wild car chase scenes that would make Hal Needham hang his head in shame, so there are a number of those kind of shoe-horned into the plot as well. Still, all the zany situations, bare breasts, and car chase footage serve to speed this comedy along, making it a pretty fun ride even it's pretty much as light as a soufflé and about as substantial. I actually kind of miss comedies like this, compared to the ones today where the main character always has to be likable (even when is he is played by Adam Sandler) and invariably falls in love and/or learns a moral lesson by the end. I suppose these old-fashioned European movies could be considered more "sexist" (as opposed to, say, "Just Go with It" and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"), but I don't personally buy that as even the young girl here is far more clever than the buffoonish male. This movie is mostly just a lot of harmless fun.

What a great performance! I wonder why some people don't like this movie. OK, it's rather silly and unreal(?), but there are several silly movies all around the world especially in the USA. This was made in Europe. It's not an awful German film that was made for awful German teens...It's a French COMEDY(!!!!!) was made for healthy European human beings! (My grandparents were Germans, and I'm Hungarian, so I have opinion about French:-))), so this is NOT a political sentence!) So, don't miss this movie if you'd like to see a really enjoyable comedy. I think, the European style in comedy with Belmondo's acting never dies! It's entertaining and unforgettable. For everybody. Only a few actors can play this role so perfectly like Belmondo does. Don't miss it!

The film doesn't have a great script. All rely on the personal charm of Jean-Paul Belmondo, great and funny, as usual. A very young Sophie Marceau is also very charming and efficient. A not so young Marie Laforêt does what she can. Rosy Varte the same, even better, in a smaller role than Laforêt. Gérard Hernandez, small role too, the waiter from the Indian restaurant, is funny too. The music by Philippe Sarde is not great. Without Belmondo, with any other actor as the character Stephane Margelle, the film will be boring without shudder, without a charm. Jean-Paul fills the screen, he is the salt and the pepper.

I found it very interesting that almost only Hungarian people wrote reviews on this film.

About the film: IMO this is a typical French comedy, with lots of embarrassing and silly but funny situations and decent acting. Belmondo is in top form, the ladies are OK. If you like French comedies this is right up your street.

What makes this movie unforgettable for many of my fellow citizens is the extremely high quality of the Hungarian dubbing. I mean, I watched this film with the original sound and i have to tell you I didn't get half of the pleasure than watching it with the Hungarian voices.( In Hungary films on TV are usually dubbed and the standard of voice acting in the country was top notch for years. It's slowly declining nowadays, though, I'm afraid.)Many Hungarians know the entire script by heart and it's always a good party thing if you quote a line from this film. To us it's just fun.

Like I said earlier this might not be your cup of tea. However, just for the laughs you can watch it on a day when there's not much to do(I wish I had more of them). It's impossible not to -at least- smiley on the lovely character played by Belmondo.

Perfect! Are there only two fans of this movie? Unbelievable! I think, this is one of Belmondo's greatest act. We can see, that he played in several plays. IN THEATRE!!! The story is usual but it's not a problem! Maybe the 5.4 is for the theatrical scenes. I enjoyed each word of the film. This movie is a glorious victory of the European film. Williams is good. Carrey is great. But drama was born in Europe.( Actually, only a European actor can play this role.) Belmondo is perfect, Laforet is perfect, Marceau is not so perfect but we love her since La Boom. An easy entertainment, you must watch it! And then you'll know it's script by heart. PS: sorry for my "Hungarian English"