Um Homem Orquestra

in essence, nice slice from "70's. atmosphere, songs, dance, relationship. at the first few, a film of Louis de Funes, not real different by many others. but this is its great virtue - a story like pretext, the little tyrannic boss and the young women with plots, secrets, charm, Olivier de Funes in middle of feelings, surprises , using teenager humor, clichés - the Sicilian family - confusion and the clear sky. all the tricks of French cinema. and the same force of seduction. because it is nice, amusing, almost lovely. and because the admiration for the work of de Funes remains at high level. this detail is the most important. and the feeling after the end of film. like delicate flavor of a lost innocent age. so, a good option for relax.

In this musical comedy the splendid and brilliant comedian Louis de Funes is a stiff-upper-lip manager of a female group of modern dance along with his nephew , actual real-life son, Olivier De Funes . They usually perform in París, then they go on a trip in Rome and other European cities , Montecarlo, Madrid... But Funes prohibits them to marry , relationship and socialize with men . Thing go wrong when one of the girls and the nephew himself have two babies in Rome.

Very stylish Seventies film with full of color , fast as well as psychedelic choreographies , twisted mountage , gaudy scenarios , explosive lights, Zooms , dated gowns , and anything else . Amusing and entertaining Louis de Funes vehicle in which he shows a sensitive vein that we don't watch before. Here Funes boasts a a singing skills and dancing qualities that we don't see very often. Wonderfully played by the great Louis de Funes playing a manager of a group of dance , directing them in military style by controlling strictly their lives . From his first roles as "Devil and 10 Commandments" , "Captain Fracassa" , "La Vendetta" until his biggest hits as "Don't look we are being shot" along with Bourvil , Fantomas trilogy along with Jean Marais , Mylene Demengeot : "Fantomas" , "Fantomas Strikes Again", "Fantomas vs Scotland Yard" , to "The Cadillac Man" , "The Restaurant" , "Wing and the thigh" and his last film feature : "The mad adventures of Rabbi Jacob" . Although Funes really excelled in Ludovico Cruchot series as "Le Gendarme of Saint Tropez" , "Gendarme in Balade", "Le Gendarme in N. Y." , "Le Gendarme and creatures of outer space" and "Le Gendarme and Gendarmettes".

It displays a charming musical score by Francois de Roubaix with plenty of attractive songs and catiching sounds accompanying the spectacular dances . As well as atmospheric and colorful cinematography in Eastmancolor by Jean Rabiar. The film was well directed by Serge Korber , though, there are a number of failures , plot holes and gaps.

Music, Choreography, humor, style are great in this movie. It is unusually funny film with great performances.

Those were the seventies, alright. (especially for those like me who only remember them vaguely) Saturated primary colors everywhere, telephones shaped like pyramids or like molten wax, easy chairs that were all but easy to sit on, catchy music, silly lyrics. This movie is as stylized as it can be (short of a Greenaway movie) and provides silly, but stylish entertainment.

Louis de Funès, at 56, shows that he is not only still the explosive comedian we all love, but that he is able to sing (in his way) and that he can even play a convincing chef-de-ballet, able to hold a candle to his female co-stars when it comes to dancing...

And, as another reviewer pointed out, we come to see his softer side as well, in his relationship with his nephew (actually real-life son), "his" girls, "his" babies.

The film benefits much from an excellent all-female dance chorus, and the dance numbers are catchy, and top-notch in their 1970 silliness.

A very uncommon movie if you expect standard LdF fare. Plot is, of course, nonexistent as any de Funès movie, but here we have abundant song and dance numbers, a Babylonian confusion of at least five languages (shadows of Tati's "Play Time", perhaps?), a dancing (!) Louis de Funès, and, as I said, plenty of 1970 design (atrocities, if you want) in brilliant colors, including the girls' costumes, which magically change between scenes.

9/10 all in all. Too many plot holes for a perfect 10, and sadly Olivier de Funès's acting talents, despite his good looks, cannot hold their ground for a lead role against his father. (He wisely chose to pursue a different career after one more movie) Yet, the movie is highly entertaining, stylish and Louis de Funès's acting makes this one his finest.

It's obvious that if you're looking for plausible plots in any of Funes' movies aren't the right place to look for. Especially his film is all about the incredible camera and lighting, staging and set design. About the beautiful girls dancing and wearing classic 60ies outfits. In fact it's all about the dancing scenes. The idea having a conversation via singing is purely operatic, used to the extreme by Jacques Demy (Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and again in a different more Funesque way by Alain Resnais in On connaît la chanson!

The film looks like it's shot in Technicolor though in the credits only Eastmancolor is mentioned - a film stock unfortunately not available anymore. The colors this film stock produces are to die for - check also i.e. Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series all shot too in Eastmancolor.

Watch it and then watch it again;-)