Sur un arbre perché

Louis de Funès is by far the best French comedian, one every French or Belgian would be able to name a handful of his movies, so rewatching one of his movies brings back memories from my youth, when back in the days you didn't have much choice. You would watch what was on the telly on the few channels you had, a de Funès movie was always popular. Sur Un Arbre Perché isn't one of the better ones, mostly because of the rather annoying Géraldine Chaplin, daughter of the famous Charlie, and Olivier de Funès, son of Louis, who mostly plays in his father's movies and who never had the same charisma or acting talent as his father. This movie is worth a watch if you're a fan of Louis, otherwise there are much better ones like La Grande Vadrouille for instance.

Louis de Funes. Geraldine Chaplin. and Olivier de Funes. a car. an accident. and a lot of adventures. a film who remains great for the gift to be almost perfect. politic and business system, mass media and marriage, religion and public image, youth and exotic refuge each is discovered by viewer in brutal light. a film about honesty. and a spectacular comedy. Perched on a Tree is one of film who reminds more than present. entertainment of high class, it is, in essence, painful honest reflection about society and its different masks. and , more important, one of Louis de Funes's comedy, with the same smart use of clichés and the great man who becomes detail for the others. and, sure, the wise end, who is memorable. a film who remains inspired option for understand contemporary events in the right light.

Imagine George Clooney and Jim Carrey alone in the car between sky and sea with Cathrin Zitta on the backseat doing with her ... sex? No ... not sex, COMEDY! You can't? This is simply because Jim Carrey cannot even compare with the mighty comic genius of the great De Funes. Please don't even think to remake (in other words, steal) his genial films EVER! Please, Hollywood. PLEASE, do your usual blockbusters about slapstick comedy situations involving petting, flirting, masturbating, copulating, ejaculating and please PLEASE leave monsters in comedy like monsieur De Funes rest in peace. What more is to be said. You cannot understand this movie unless you were born European. Sure it will be boring to the Americans excluding few brief nudity scenes with young Geraldine Chaplin wearing really funny trousers.

This is not a comedy. It has funny parts, yet that is not enough to have a comedy. What makes things worse is de Funes' fame. Himself a great actor, yet the audience is used to see him as a funny man. So used that people just don't understand what they are seeing with their own eyes. After all, they read de Funes on the poster so they paid to be amused, so in a way it's not their fault. It's the typecasting Hollywood actors try so much to avoid.

This is both a drama and a portrait of the post Second World War (post deGaulle to be more precise). I wouldn't go as far say it's the drama of the french society after the boom of the '60s. These are not regular characters, these are types. And the few funny scenes are only to make the pill easier to swallow. And not every scene is funny, even if the audience laughs - the scenes when de Funes' character escapes certain death are not funny, are terribly real.

You have almost everything here: the influence of cheap entertainment (the TV movie preview), the influence of news media (both the fact that the ones to be saved are finding out from TV what is going on and the crowd drawn up by the publicity), the unfaithful young wife looking for temporary relief, the socialist young man looking for adventure, the big corporation doing something else than declared, the big corporation ready to do anything to reach its estimated profits, the church, the honorable wife, the 20th century entertainment, etc. Even the fact that although everybody is working hard to justify their job, nobody is helping in any way and the rush for cheap thrills experienced through a third party as people want to know how does it feel, yet nobody is ready to trying for themselves, not even the guy sent to the rescue.

This is a must see, but leave the comedy expectations as theater door.

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'Sur un arbre perche' is the original title of a De Funes film and when saying De Funes, one thinks comedy relying basically on grimaces, silly noises etc... Well, this isn't quite the case here.... Louis de Funes does what he does best-the above mentioned- but the film comes as a surprise in which that it is more than a comedy- the end proves it ! It's a satire at all that makes today's society's entertainment : church, family values, onerous business, TV reality shows, politicians, public services like police, fire fighters, first aid; it's all there in the spotlight and none is given a sweet pat on the head- far from it ! The film being shot in the early 70's, the satire addressing all the mentioned areas is so much more compelling. The silly accident which leads to three strangers being literally perched on a 'pin parapluie' in a car above the sea for a week is still a good starting point for some gentle humour 'De Funes style', but when the protagonists are finally discovered there's a load of not so humorous, yet immensely funny reactions from all the concerned authorities or people , none of them actually doing much to rescue our heroes. And when they are finally rescued... well... A film to watch at least for one reason: it is not what you might expect.