Meu Pai Herói

After brushing up on my French for a few weeks, I decided to brave this movie without English subtitles. I own a copy of the 1994 remake and know it like the back of my hand, but just to make sure I'd have the dialog practically memorized, I watched it the night before. Luckily, for the first half of the movie, the French and English version of My Father the Hero are nearly identical! The mother-daughter squabble in the apartment, the voicemails on a faceless girlfriend's machine, driving up to the hotel in a jeep and complaining that the guests are all old people, the moon going behind a cloud after he yells at her to come outside and look, forbidding her from dating musicians, the thong bathing suit, the older man at the bar offering to photograph her-as you can see, the list is extensive. I was able to understand everything they said until the last twenty minutes, and even then, I was able to piece together words, phrases, and context.

Gérard Depardieu stars in both, as the father of a fourteen-year-old girl making the transition from girl to woman via the discovery of her hormones. While on a tropical vacation, Marie Gillain develops a crush on a local boy, and thinks pretending she's with her boyfriend instead of her dad will impress the older kid. I know, the premise is a little sick, but if you can take it for what it is-a comedy-you'll be fine.

Except... the 1991 original isn't a comedy. Yes, the water-skiing scene is still in there, and the "You have a daughter?" sequence is the same, but this version is a drama. Because of the very slight, but very crucial change, I didn't end up liking the movie, while the remake remains one of my favorites. The story is about a young girl first discovering romance who makes a gigantic mistake by lying and pretending she has experience when she hasn't. Once she confesses what she's done to her father, he's livid, but he agrees to go along with her lie-hence the title. The movie is called My Father, the Hero, not My Father, the Bad Parent. At the end of the movie, you're supposed to think he did the right thing, bonded with his daughter, and helped her transition out of adolescence with grace and courage. At the end of this movie, I thought the exact opposite. One small example of the difference: the closing lines of both films are exactly the same, but in 1994, Gérard laughed, and in 1991 he cried.

I'd recommend sticking with the Disney version. It's far more uplifting, and it greatly improved the story. With such an odd premise-pretending her dad is her boyfriend-you're going to need a total laugh-fest to get through it, and the original just makes you depressed.

Please do not pass this film by, it is worth all the effort to find it (I found mine on Amazon co.u.k), and similar to other forum users I watched the USA version first.

Without going over the film details all of which have been written in this forum and in much better detail than I can muster, all I can say that this should not be compared to the USA version as the French version is far superior in every way.

I gave this a 7.5 out of 10, one point missing as the transfer from a VHS take can only be considered very poor, but having said that I would not part with my DVD copy for ten times what I paid for it. Enough said, this is a top French comedy, and Gerard Depardieu out acts everyone again, this is a forgotten French gem :)

We love the movie and so do Australian high school students of French! Could you please let us know how to purchase the original DVD version (in French), preferably Region 4 so that we can watch it here? I am a French teacher and the old video copy that I have of this wonderful, fun and, as the students say, "cool" film is getting more than a little worn out. It is wonderful to see Mauritius which appears to be really beautiful in the film. I could easily enough purchase the American version but no thank you....the French one is so unreal. We love the story of the teenage girl coming to terms with the situation her parents are in as well as her first fling with a boyfriend. We're desperate to purchase this film on DVD!

"Mon père ce héros" is a quote of Victor Hugo, the most famous French poet of all time. And although the movie is very realistic, kind of true-to-life situation, it is full of poetry. It shows one more time that Love is a big awkward thing for everyone. It is a very nice comedy, rather funny and moving. The movie helps to realize the gap existing between a father and a 14-year-old teenager. All the actors (not only Depardieu And Marie Gillain) are sincere while the main subject is "lies" !! I deeply recommend you to see this film and not its remake - a bit too tasteless (actually the dialogs are exactly the same). However, if you want to spend a good time in front of your telly, I believe Mon père ce Héros to be the perfect choice.

I had been searching for this film I saw on the BBC years and years ago every so often, when people began chatting about films, I would ask everyone, "It stars Gerard Depardieu and he goes somewhere with this girl who's stunning and uses her beauty and, urgh! I can't remember what it's called but it's amazing!!". Everyone looks confused and no-one knows the title. I eventually gave up. Then thanks to the internet, I recently found it! And I bought it. And it is even better than I remembered! The story is simple but perfect. A middle class divorced father and his beautiful daughter (who he dotes on but as with most teenagers doesn't appreciate it much) go to a resort and she quickly pretends he is her lover who is only claiming to be her dad. She gets the attention and sympathy from cute guys nearer her own age and the whole story just develops brilliantly. She is stunning and he has his typical charm and so the whole thing is completely believable from start to finish. Of course, the story has more than that, including some nice little subplots, but I don't want to spoil it. The highlights are Gerard Depardieu's wonderful acting and the fast- paced script. With those excellent sarcastic comments and funny expressions as he deals with his little girl pushing him to the edge of sanity (plus people occasionally trying to hurt him, and once almost kill him) the moments for the highlight real count up fast. Apart from some of the known French classic films this movie is a total gem way above the rest within the French film industry. It's that good, really. I'm not sure this is the very, very best comedy ever but it's definitely in my top 3 for sure. Constant laughs and father-daughter dynamics which are totally accurate make sure of that for me. Even my mother, who is rarely impressed by French films, fell in love with this as much as I did again after all these years.