Hanno rubato le chiappe di Afrodite

Three of the actors playing the four main characters have played in "Tendre Poulet" a sweet, eminently watchable movie. But in this sequel ("On a volé la cuisse de Jupiter") the mayonnaise is stale!

The recipe,though, is genuine de Broca: a slapstick comedy in gorgeous settings with lots of action; but the ingredients are not of the required quality. The script is unbelievable, the action scenes are sluggish, and the characters are so much billhook-cut that the actors don't even try to save the film!

Too bad! There are many de Broca films which are fun to watch, this one is not one of them.

___ .

You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to fall for this one: Philippe Noiret and Annie Girardot (reprising their roles from the earlier DEAR INSPECTOR) are a middle-aged French classics professor and his no-nonsense police inspector wife, trying to celebrate their honeymoon in Greece ... and instead winding up chasing the marble hindquarters of a priceless 2,500 year old statue. De Broca (best known for KING OF HEARTS) does an admirable job of updating the timeless Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn screwball formula from the 1930's -- but a better comparison might be something like SILVER STREAK with its mixture of offbeat leads, winsome romance and faux-Hitchcockian thrills. The film's real charm is in its throwaway moments -- at one point the getaway car stops so that someone can mail postcards to the folks back home -- and the marvelous rapport between Noiret and Girardot, playing two decidedly mature romantic leads who aren't too mature for a role in the hay with a crackling fire and the ancient Greek hills in the background. A lovely little movie: Hollywood in style but French in spirit, and made in Greece.

Annie Girardot and Philippe Noiret are at their best, playing a strange couple: she is a police officer and he is an archaeologist. The other couple is equally strange: he is an archaeologist, while she is a "bimbo". The common adventure that they share help the two couples to understand that their relation still works.

I saw this movie as a child, and I can still remember it. I won't mind seeing it again. I like it, as it is both funny and relaxing. Besides, it has wonderful landscapes and seascapes from Greece. Last but not least: beautiful Greek music. It is like going on a 90-minute holiday to Greece. I would go for it again.

I'm guessing that making this movie was a lot of fun, free trip to Greece and all, but the result is a typical genre of early Eighties French comedy that had previously put me off French cinema for over 10 years. Maybe we ought to give Broca credit for trying to deal with a serious topic (the black market of archeological antiquities) but the mixture of satire, slapstick, romance and police investigation is a total failure. Nice music and scenery though.

This sequel to the 1978 film "Dear Detective" is more of a James Bondian adventure (plus a Greek travelogue) than the whodunit the first film was. It offers breathtaking (and varied) Greek vistas, great driving (and other) stunts, lovely music, and lots of gentle laughs. Apart from the two leads, of course, Catherine Alric also returns but plays a different character, and almost steals the show; she looks like Catherine Deneuve's (much) sexier doppelganger! The film may be slightly too long, but it's fun; probably best watched right after "Dear Detective" for continuity purposes. *** out of 4.