La classe américaine

This movie is just too funny. If you speak French, watch it. The story is not important, don't pay attention to it. You've got to listen carefully to the dialogue, and you will understand what comedy is.

"On va manger des chips!!!"

Take a bit of El Dorado, a bit of President's men, a part of Citizen Kane, (etc.), keep the usual dubbing French voice but create another story... Unique, hilarious, perfect

I discovered recently the "Grand Détournement" series: small scenes of movies, assembled in an absurdly hilarious patchwork and dubbed by French actors.

Being quite fond of absurd humor (I especially love seeing serious movie stars say something completely out of bounds with what was said in the original movie...), I knew I was a potential target for these shows...

However, having now seen all 3 of them (I think there were only 3), I must say that "La classe américaine" is not my favorite and this by a long way! Had I discovered it first, I would surely have rated it much higher, it sure does have its funny moments, but it is a bit too long for what it gives us... Since there is clearly no plot, you keep expecting jokes for 80 minutes and it does not always succeed to keep your attention alive...

I feel compelled to tell you to watch "ça détourne" aka "Le triomphe de Bali-Balo ou la splendeur de la honte" instead... It lasts only 45 minutes, but of pure condensed fun without a single time-out. Seeing Steve Mc Queen as a "serial joker" is quite unique and leaves "La classe américaine" a bit behind. The third one "Derrick vs Superman" is the poorest of the series, fortunately, it lasts only 15 minutes and has a few good moments...

What the words "Monde de merde" (fucking world) means ? Is it a name ? Is it a woman's ? Is it a horse's ? Or is it a sledge's ? On a story based on Citizen Kane, three journalists, Dave (Paul Newman), Peter (Dustin Hoffman) and Steven (Robert Redford), are investigating the life of George Abidbol (John Wayne) after his mysterious death, searching the meaning of his last words "Monde de merde". But wait a second... a french film with Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford and John Wayne ??? No, I didn't drink too much. Actually, this "flim" is a mix of many old films, dubbed in french with silly dialogues which don't have any sort of link with originals. And that makes one of the funniest film I've ever seen !!!

This movie could be considered as the lost "Les Nuls" movie, for they dubbed some of the characters. Also, it contains the same humour as in their own movie, "La Cité de la Peur". It's a remake of Citizen Kane, but more comedy-like (much more!) This film gathers the most famous casting ever. But they didn't play in this movie, it's just a french-dubbed archive footage, and French viewers will recognize the official voices of all actors.

The plot appears to be nonsense : George dies because of an accident caused by a storm, but apparently someone tried to kill him ; Orson Welles interrupts the story to complain about plagiarism then get shot. But it doesn't really matter : You just have to enjoy the funny scenes one after another. The very humour of this film comes from the french script. Could you imagine Henry Fonda say "it's easy to call people gay because two men live together in a ranch and they wear leather trousers"? Well, it happened.