Guy Lefranc 's career got off to a most auspicious start :his first effort,"Knock" owed almost everything to his star ,Louis Jouvet,but his sophomore work ,while featuring Jouvet again,was a good variation on the well-worn Romeo and Juliet theme;"L'Homme De Ma Vie",his third one , has a good reputation and an appealing female cast (Jeanne Moreau,Madeleine Robinson,Jane Marken ) but it seems to have vanished into thin air.
"Elle Et Moi",based on a novel called "Elle Et Lui " features the star of " Une Histoire D'Amour",Dany Robin ,and a good cast including François Périer,Noel Roquevert and a young Jean Carmet as the sponger .plus dialog written by Michel Audiard ;and for all that ,it does not work,the movie is terribly talky,heavy-handed and finally dull.
Although it's not a tragedy,like "Une Histoire D'Amour" ,the heroes are called Jean Montaigu (sic) and Juliette Capulet (re-sic);they get married ,and ,after a not-so-romantic honeymoon ,they look for housing ,which was a big problem in the fifties ;they first live on a boat,then in a town house ...But ,most amazing thing,neither the husband ,nor the wife work!
Only the honeymoon is ,relatively speaking,rather funny:the uncle ,taking the newly weds to the farm in the (empty)pigs van ,the numerous nephews and nieces ,brats who know more than they should ,as far as sexual relations are concerned ;they were longing for Venice ,but they spent it on a farm in the Charente.
The second part ,in the private mansion,whose owner is a lunatic tries a spoof on fantasy and horror movies ,but except for Carmet's interventions ,it falls flat.With the appearance of the black servant ,things go even worse,and verge on the very naive good-natured racism of the time :Bouboudou is a grown up kid ,speaking pidgin French ,and watching a movie on TV in which natives (from Africa ?) roast a prisoner ,their diner;and Boudoubou licks his lips,to boot!
Fans of Louis De Funès ,you do not have to wait too long:he has an argument with Périer at the sixth minute !
Word to the wise:turn your back on this ponderous farce,and do pick the other movie Miss Robin did the same year :Duvivier's sensational "La Fëte A Henriette " !
