Fröhliche Ostern

Bad campy French comedy, with lots of unfanny slapstick, a lot of silliness and very few nice gags. Sophie Marceau is cute and charming in her youth, Marie Laforêt does a competent job and has a strong presence, but Jean-Paulo Belmondo is very unconvincing in the leading role, partially due his unskilled overacting and because he does not fit in that character which is a mix of Don Juan de Marco and James Bond. As a matter of fact, the whole concept of the story is not good at all.

In 1984, the "Man" is looking at a world that is changing. The socialists are shaming you to be a capitalist while drinking champagne and eating caviar. The society is turning into a never ending pit of bad faith and selfishness. In the middle of it all comes this ridiculous caricature of a men from another time whom struggles to stay afloat. One lie to hide the previous one, presenting how ridiculous these "Don Juans" are in a world where women are simply stronger.

This open the way to all the profound and sincere French humour in which the best thing to mocks is ourselves.

To sum up, if you are French and think this is isn't funny, you should replace that head of yours, so stuck far up your bottom and try what is called "Autodérision".

Qu'on me donne une mur..Que je me tape la tête dessus...Que je me suicide au mur !!!

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.

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.

Belmondo is one of the greatest movie-actors all time. He is very good in drama, in action, and also in comedy. His character is always exciting and his charm climb down from the screen. I think, every man want to be a little bit Belmondo, and every women want to own a little bit Belmondo. Now, in this role, he is Stephan, the man, how loves woman. Loves his woman, his wife, but loves every beautiful girl all over the world. More girls, than day. But there is one rule: don't take home the chick.

Once, when his wife fly away, he violate the rule. Met Sophie Marceau, and take the beautiful young girl home. But before the action comes funny noise from the elevator. Belmondo: this is my wife, this is my wife, the elevator has a specific noise, when came my wife. And what can a man do, when there is a young girl in home, and the wife comes home. Belmondo: this is. this is. this is my. daughter. And here begin one of the funniest, greatest french comedy all time, with memorable moments. I offer this movie everyone, who want to laugh a lot. Great points, great Belmondo, sexy Marceau, sexy wife. Have fun!