Des pissenlits par la racine

France as we all know is famous for their art-house flicks, the new wave, the new new wave and of course old school gangster flicks. therefore, i was amazed to find this gem of a gangster spoof funny movie. you know a movie is good, when you can't even tell its plot, a. because it too nebulous/zany, b. it would ruin it for you. it has more twists than a road winding along the ocean front of California and it runs like a well oiled Peugeot (i know) from a vintage class. fast and so so smooth.

it starts with a gangster who just got out of jail, named Pomme-Chips (hehehe...french fries, genius)...who's out to get his revenge on the guy who stole his girl. he's got friends, there's gambling, the guy he's after has a cousin who's in a play, his girlfriend gets seduced again...they all meet in a bar, then a play house, an elevator, a party with a general, a huge viola has a significant cameo, skeletons and so on. i really just can't tell you more about the story, but it will not bore you for a second.

the dialog is insanely good, eg, 110 00:10:45,573 --> 00:10:50,442 Did you see her hips sway? Only women who've suffered have that. 111 00:10:50,613 --> 00:10:53,730 Are you talking nonsense now? - Yes.

the title translates to "salad by the roots"...no idea what the analogy is to. the cast is semi-famous from that era and they do a killer job. the girlfriend starts out hot and only keeps on getting into more stylish (cough) outfits. good ole un-feminism. i like the whole french style, direct and to the point. the old uncle is a hoot...i'm laughing just thinking about that scene. the director is unfairly obscure outside of France, despite having made a bunch of comic gems, but the fking french never provide any English subs...la moral superiorite et la frenchies....see my french even got better...tut a laire, aloe, bon nuit (sounds good in my head...hehehe) !!!

'Des pissenlits par la racine' (sorry, I can't translate this well) truly makes a great comedy. Carried on by fine dialogs, keeping a steady pace all the way down, and surprising you with many twists & turns.

Its cast is a well-chosen mixture of young and old, containing some of France's greatest names back then. Louis de Funes for instance, who surely adds an extra 10%.

Nevertheless you should be aware that 'pissenlits' dates from the early 1960-s. The youth revolution hadn't happened yet, so consequently this film shows morals & behavior that don't fit in nowadays anymore.

This gap is illustrated best by young Mireille Darc. She does well in this film, but one wonders if she's fully with her heart in it. Anyway, Mireille's style in 'pissenlits' differs light years from that of her later acting.

With De Funes at the threshold of stardom (1964 would also see him in the first of the Gendarme and Fantomas series as well as in Faites Sauter la Banque!), Darc already in it, and a mix of reliable veterans (Blanche) and future stars (Serrault), the actor lineup is outstanding. But what makes the movie even more outstanding is the dialog. Lautner and Audiard were at their very peak, also penning and directing Les Barbouzes and Les Tontons Flingueurs in that period - perhaps the finest dialog in post-WW II French cinema, on par (in the original) with the likes of Sweet Smell of Success or Some Like it Hot. The storyline (no spoiler meant here) mixes elements of gangster, con (wo)man and chase movies. The crossovers and recurrences (where is that body?) are hilarious. Like all movies of this kind, the ending poses a quandary for the writers, and this is done more than honorably in this case. The technical quality is not contemporary of course, and I presume the dialog will lose some of its flavor in most translations, but the storyline and the acting will make this a worthwhile watch in any language for those who appreciate 60's cinema.

To follow up on cheese_cake's review: the title refers to the dead and buried ("eating dandelions by their roots"). It is a paraphrase of the title of the novel from which the movie's writers started. Of course, the title is also playful: the body of interest in the movie, dead though it may be, isn't that static; some of those chasing it, however, fear that they will end up pushing up daisies indeed.