Comment réussir... quand on est con et pleurnichard

Do you have to be French-speaking to love this movie ? I would guess so judging by the average mark on IMDb. How can it be so amazingly low? This is a gem among French comedies of the 70's. The man behind the camera is (rightly) worshiped as the best French dialog writer. Although this film makes nothing to have him worshiped for directing as well, his art of dialogs is at the top here, and is wonderfully supported by a cast of comedians who were too often restricted to supporting roles. The movie draws an ironic picture of flawed artists living in poor conditions. Eventually one is meeting a rich lady and he suddenly climbs the social ladder. The movie is somewhat reminiscent of fierce Italian comedies of the 60's and early 70's.

Michel Audiard, the great scenarist of cult movies like "Les tontons flingueurs" or "Les barbouzes" now direct this movie. You can find in this film all the elements that made him famous: great dialogs (really fun), lots of comic situations... The story is about a guy (Jean Carmet), who still lives with his mother, who try to sell some really awful alcohol to bar tenders. The only way for him to do this is to cry and invent himself an awful life. Then, he mets the beautiful Jane Birkin, who plays the role of a woman whose goal in life is to sleep with the less excinting guys on Earth. All the cast is great and you'll really enjoy this movie.

I laughed throughout the whole film and found the dialogues so well written : in fact I think that Michel Audiard is a bit like a French Woody Allen, as his scripts and characters remind me of some of his work; parodies and caricatures of all classes, with such losers as Antoine Robineau (Jean Carmet), Foisnard (Jean Rochefort) and Gérard (Jean-Pierre Marielle) who are all great actors.

You feel attached to their characters in a way, however low and annoying they can be. Jane Birkin looks so sexy, lively and shows a good sense of humour, particularly in a scene that suggests a bad and tacky copy of a famous show in Paris...

Very funny and well acted movie that deserves to be better known !