Mein Vater, der Held

I actually saw this two summers ago in China, I saw a chinese dubbed version, but it was good nonetheless. The first thing to love about this movie is the theme soundtrack that it starts with. I've been trying to get a hold of it ever since. If anyone can help me, please email. Anyway, I loved the movie. Even though a lot of jokes probably got lost in the translation, I still enjoyed the movie very much. It's a very charming film, one of the best foreign films I've ever watched (and I watched a lot of good foreign language films, from Stalingrad to Au revoir les enfants) The dad is truely great in this movie, he puts up with so much, my dad would kick my ass for 1/100 of that. Veronique is great too, not many people have the guts to pull somethign liek that off.

I had been searching for this film I saw on the BBC years and years ago every so often, when people began chatting about films, I would ask everyone, "It stars Gerard Depardieu and he goes somewhere with this girl who's stunning and uses her beauty and, urgh! I can't remember what it's called but it's amazing!!". Everyone looks confused and no-one knows the title. I eventually gave up. Then thanks to the internet, I recently found it! And I bought it. And it is even better than I remembered! The story is simple but perfect. A middle class divorced father and his beautiful daughter (who he dotes on but as with most teenagers doesn't appreciate it much) go to a resort and she quickly pretends he is her lover who is only claiming to be her dad. She gets the attention and sympathy from cute guys nearer her own age and the whole story just develops brilliantly. She is stunning and he has his typical charm and so the whole thing is completely believable from start to finish. Of course, the story has more than that, including some nice little subplots, but I don't want to spoil it. The highlights are Gerard Depardieu's wonderful acting and the fast- paced script. With those excellent sarcastic comments and funny expressions as he deals with his little girl pushing him to the edge of sanity (plus people occasionally trying to hurt him, and once almost kill him) the moments for the highlight real count up fast. Apart from some of the known French classic films this movie is a total gem way above the rest within the French film industry. It's that good, really. I'm not sure this is the very, very best comedy ever but it's definitely in my top 3 for sure. Constant laughs and father-daughter dynamics which are totally accurate make sure of that for me. Even my mother, who is rarely impressed by French films, fell in love with this as much as I did again after all these years.

"Mon père ce héros" is a quote of Victor Hugo, the most famous French poet of all time. And although the movie is very realistic, kind of true-to-life situation, it is full of poetry. It shows one more time that Love is a big awkward thing for everyone. It is a very nice comedy, rather funny and moving. The movie helps to realize the gap existing between a father and a 14-year-old teenager. All the actors (not only Depardieu And Marie Gillain) are sincere while the main subject is "lies" !! I deeply recommend you to see this film and not its remake - a bit too tasteless (actually the dialogs are exactly the same). However, if you want to spend a good time in front of your telly, I believe Mon père ce Héros to be the perfect choice.

I actually discovered that there were two versions of this film, both by the same director, both including Gérard Depardieu, but in the first one, most of the actors are French and it is set on the Isle of Mauritius, and the second, the characters bar Depardieu are mostly American and the film is set in the West Indies or Bahamas but not Mauritius. Why make two films with the same plot ? I just don't know.

In my opinion, the better of the two was the first one which is set in Mauritius. Unfortunately, this one is NOT available on DVD and the other IS !! I bought the DVD, thinking I was getting the FIRST but got the SECOND ! Very confusing, especially when the main actor is the same person.

I preferred the characters in the first film and found it funnier..but that is of course just personal judgment. I was also pleased to see shots of Mauritius which is a lovely place. In the first film, Depardieu was speaking French, his native language, in the second he was speaking English ......he was obviously less at ease in the humorous situations !! To understand this you need to be able to speak French and, more important, heard Depardieu get irritated in his mother tongue. It's indescribably funny and cannot be translated into another language. That's what I think clinches it for this first of the two films !!

Please do not pass this film by, it is worth all the effort to find it (I found mine on Amazon co.u.k), and similar to other forum users I watched the USA version first.

Without going over the film details all of which have been written in this forum and in much better detail than I can muster, all I can say that this should not be compared to the USA version as the French version is far superior in every way.

I gave this a 7.5 out of 10, one point missing as the transfer from a VHS take can only be considered very poor, but having said that I would not part with my DVD copy for ten times what I paid for it. Enough said, this is a top French comedy, and Gerard Depardieu out acts everyone again, this is a forgotten French gem :)