Tendre poulet

"Tendre Poulet" aka "Dear Detective" is a pretty seamless blend of a delightful romantic comedy about two slightly clumsy middle-aged people finding love (Annie Girardot and Philippe Noiret are perfectly matched), and an efficient giallo-esque policier about a series of murders targeting members of the Parliament (there is a clever central plot misdirection about the motive of the killings). The Paris location shooting is terrific; there are also some great driving stunts, as well as perhaps the slowest car chase in movie history! (intentionally). Perhaps not the kind of movie that will appeal to the European-arthouse crowd, but good entertainment all the way. *** out of 4.

Light, anarchic, entertaining French film about love, lust and murder in middle age, treated with considerable joie de vivre, even the murder part, as only the French and Spanish can. Waifish Annie Girardot and shambling Teddy bear Philippe Noiret are two unlikely lovers, but the story works on screen. Despite the underlying sexual themes of the film, the actual sexual content on screen is minimal and handled with a casualness that is the opposite of salacious. Antoine (Noiret) and Lise (Girardot) had a brief involvement while students at the Sorbonne. Now, 20 years later, he is a rumpled academic and she is a police inspector when they meet again. Antoine's radical politics, and the difficult case she's working, make Lise reluctant to reveal her occupation to him. Antoine, for his part, seems awfully slow to catch on that Lise is hot on the trail of a serial killer who's at large in Paris. Inevitably, the love story and the crime story converge, and eventually Antoine finds himself taken hostage by the killer and forced at gunpoint to drive the killer's getaway car. What the killer hasn't counted on is that the only form of personal transportation Antoine has used since college is a bicycle. He can barely drive the car; in fact, he can't figure out how to get out of first gear! There follows a low-speed chase through the streets of Paris that is one of the funniest chase sequences ever filmed.

"Tendre Poulet" was released in the U.S. under the English title "Dear Inspector." It was remade into a leaden, arthritic, flat-footed American TV movie in 1979 called "Dear Detective" starring Brenda Vaccaro. The Hollywood TV movie was considerably sanitized from the French version: What little, fluffy sexuality there was in the original film was cleaned up even further, and the fairly graphic murder of a plainclothes detective with an icepick (an important plot element that is something of a shock in the original) is watered down to a painful but otherwise not life-threatening stab wound in the remake.

I had plenty of reasons to be optimistic when I chose to see 'Tendre poulet', Philippe de Broca's film made in 1977. It is labeled as 'romantic and detective comedy', two genres in which de Broca had some notable successes. Starring Philippe Noiret and Annie Girardot, two actors I really like and who were in 1977 passed beyond the age of 'first youth' roles but in full maturity and creative form. The adaptation and dialogues are signed (and) by Michel Audiard, who gave charm and naturalness to so many words spoken in successful French films. Even the title of the film, with the pun in which 'poulet' also means chicken but also a policeman promises. And yet, 'Tendre poulet' somehow disappointed me, failing to meet but partially my expectations.

A (literally and figuratively) accidental meeting between the two heroes triggers a series of comic-sentimental events that inevitably include a sudden ('coup de foudre' as the French say) and mutual falling in love. The only problem is that in the whirlwind of events Lise (Annie Girardot) fails to mention that she is one of the most important police officers in France who is entrusted to solve a series of crimes that have as victims senators in the French Parliament, while Antoine (Philippe Noiret) dislikes the police. The woman whose job requires walking with a gun under her elegant clothes and the Greek teacher hating violence will have to solve these differences, and, of course, the police intrigue.

What I liked. The film tackles with a feminist theme long before Helen Mirren or Frances McDormand made memorable characters out of female police inspectors. Some of the comic situations are excellently sketched - for example the one in which the policewoman appears in the teacher's classroom and the two mature people become the target of the ironies of the young students, or the dialogues between the teacher allergic to police and his girlfriend's colleagues. In addition to the performances of Philippe Noiret and Annie Annie Girardot, some of the supporting roles (the mother and the aunt, the demagogue senator) also give the opportunity for delicious performances. The style of the film is relaxed, with one exception - a Hitchcock-like suspense scene - in which we are reminded that de Broca was also an excellent director of action films. What I liked less. The police intrigue is not only thin but also has a very predictable solution. The character of the police commissioner is insufficiently developed, we fail to realize exactly what are the skills that brought her to the position she is. The script is also thin in terms of emotions, leaving no time for the two protagonists to develop a relationship that we can take somewhat seriously. Relying too much on comedy but also keeping this part within the limits of prudence, 'Tendre poulet' misses the opportunity to be a more solid film and gives the impression that the director and screenwriters did not aim higher than to make a light and superficial entertainment movie. However, at least for the two wonderful actors in the lead roles, the film is worth watching or rewatching.