La cuisine au beurre

A nice comedy, that aged pretty well compared to other 'classics' of that period. Bourvil and Fernandel are doing a good job in their only (i think) collaboration and show good complicity.

Years before "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis", we have this opposition between North and South (summarized in their cooking style but not limited to that) - but in the South and in a really different settings as this is not the core of the movie. Core of the comedy is the come-back of Fernandel to its home place, but many many years after the war has ended. What will he find and how will he react to it? The best is not to spoil it but let you watch it!

When he was young, Bourvil admired Fernandel, and it was a pleasure shooting with him, but Fernandel was tough with Bourvil trying to steal the movie and Grangier helped Bourvil without showing it to Fernandel. Bourvil had already met the fabulous Jean Gabin in "la Traversée de Paris", Jean Marais in "le Capitan", and he was soon to team with Louis de Funès in "le Corniaud" and "la Grande Vadrouille". Bourvil and Fernandel are great in this confrontation of the two husbands with two different cookings in picturesque Martigues, and finally having big laughs together, these scenes are great. I'm not a fan of Fernandel, but here he is much tougher than usual and he gains a lot on the screen. Louis de Funès was soon shooting his own restaurant movie, "le Grand restaurant".