Um Homem em Estado... Interessante

When Marcello Mastroianni is feeling run down, Catherine Deneuve is worried that he is going to die and leave her and their eight-year-old son, so she hectors him into seeing her doctor. It turns out he's pregnant.

Jacques Demy's dry satire has an increasingly big-bellied Mastroianni walking around with a befuddled expression, while the world spins slightly out of control around him. Everyone in picture takes the events very calmly and seriously, and everyone is mildly congratulatory towards the expectant father. The few jokes are mild and of the biter-bit variety and, except for the sequence when he gets involved in a campaign of clothing for pregnant men, there isn't much to this trifle.

Given the date of its release and the birth of his son, Mathieu, I suspect Demy started writing it when Agnes Varda offered some irritated comments on her pregnancy.

"L'événement le plus important depuis que l'homme a marché sur la Lune" is one of only a handful of films to deal with the idea of male pregnancy. It uses the premise to open a window into a possible better world; it has a low-key charm, a light, gentle touch, and even a humanism to it. There are no belly-laughs, but there are plenty of smiles. Two top international stars, Marcello Mastrioianni and Catherine Deneuve, are at their most charming and down-to-earth here. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit of a cop-out and may leave you feeling disappointed, but it does not eclipse the positive qualities of the movie up to that point. *** out of 4.

Marcello Mastroianni is a driving instructor. His common-law wife Catherine Deneuve is a hairdresser. He's not feeling well one day so he sees a doctor, who suspects he might be pregnant.

There are many funny set pieces in this movie.

The initial visit to his general practitioner where she suspects pregnancy.

Back home, Mastroianni has to reassure a nearly hysterical Deneuve he doesn't have a fatal illness without telling her he's pregnant.

Together they go to the gynecologist for confirmation. Get a load of the way the specialist explains his theory of how men can get pregnant. If his theories hold water, male GenZers will be the solution to our birth-rate crisis.

And then back at work, trying to tell his co-worker.

What makes the movie funny to me is that everybody underplays it. Unlike in American movies where, say, Tom Hanks would be yelling his lines or Adam Sandler would be talking like a r3trrd, or Jim Carey would be pulling faces. Everyone here understands that the premise is ridiculous so to avoid descending into farce they play it straight.

As funny as it is, it's rewarding if you pay attention to what they're talking about. They get in their digs about gender equality. It's very much a movie inspired by the women's liberation movement of the 60s yet somehow it's still topical and fresh in 2024.

In this French film, Marcello Mastroianni plays a man who is diagnosed as being pregnant! This would explain all of Marcello's aches and pains and swelling! His wife (Catherine Deneuve) seems quite pleased with it and Marcello seems to accept it all rather easily. In fact, that is an odd thing about the film--the public and media also accept it rather easily--perhaps too easily! And, in light of this, it's odd that he wasn't subjected to a huge battery of tests--it's just accepted! The idea of a pregnant man could have been handled in a wide variety of ways--and the rather matter of fact way it was handled here surprised me. This film was NOT handled as slapstick or as an obvious comedy--more like a mildly amusing film and that is all. That, combined with the VERY anti-climactic ending made for a film that was diverting but not especially satisfying--good as a time-passer but with very little to say about gender roles or inequities or comedy. This is a case where a film has an exceptional director (Jacques Demy) and some exceptional actors were hampered by a rather mundane script despite the novel idea (after all, this film came out before "Rabbit Test" and "Junior").

What is this obsession we all seem to share about men getting pregnant? Be it the French, Italians, Americans, or Japanese, we as human all seem to have this same idea. An impossibility, it is the stuff of dreams, weird wacked-out movies, and cold-sweat nightmares.

Maybe it's because in this day and age women can do everything men can do, but men can never experience the miracle of birthing a child. I don't know. But I do know that this film is just okay at it's very best moments, and overall it's no more than boring and frustrating. There's no big payoff or much else good for that matter. Do not recommend.