French cinema has a long tradition low-budget silly movies where we can imagine the director, the writer and the actors deciding to shoot the movie after a fine meal in a good restaurant. There used to be lots of movies like this, with a script reduced to a couple of sullen jokes, poor lighting and a bunch of second-rate actors. These movies were so cheap they actually made money, and the crew could pay the rent until the next one, and the next restaurant. Most of these pieces of art haven't survived in the public memory, but occasionally one of them still pop up on prime-time TV and they manage to evoke fond memories from the viewers. This is one of these movies.
It's a sort of spoof on caper movies, with two con artists trying to break in the Bank of France through a hole of the subway toilets... But for this they have to hide from the lady who runs the place and use a lots of subterfuges to get into the bathrooms and dig the hole. I like this movie. Because of its incredible array of lesser-known actors, who did hundred of movies of the same ilk. Because you can spot some actors that will later become famous. Because in these cheap movies the authors are so little concerned by the rules of normal cinema that surreal things tend to appear randomly (like the dignified African businessman who crosses the set followed by a dozen of white carriers). Because it's filmed in a realistic, non glamorous Paris, much more like I remember it from this period than you can see it in art movies like Bertolucci's `Last tango'. Because, though full of toilet humor, some of the dialogue still makes me laugh. Because, if this movie pops up again on TV, I'll watch it again.
