Le Tatoué

its virtue - the lead actors. the basic sin - the story. or, more exactly, the improvisation of a chaotic story who has the chance to ignore de Funes and Gabin for a sort of humor who is far to be the most inspired. but it remains a nice film for the small details, for the admirable effort of the actors, for the Exploration of a Jean Gabin who gives a not ordinary side of his art and for the genius of comedy of Louis de Funes .

I had this tape for a long time but delayed the review until the last moment as this FUFU movie is also a Gabin one. As much as Fufu is a true icon, I never liked Gabin and never understand why he sould be in French Pantheon: he is rustic, gruff, never smiling, one attitude fits all so well a real pain in the what you think. Maybe it's because the contrast is so huge that here Fufu really shines with his fallacious deals and really human defects. The movie also has Garvarentz as a music composer and his soundtrack is really swinging!

The story is a fairly absurd little farce that doesn't really go anywhere, but it's possible to enjoy this as just a goofy buddy comedy with some good, irreverent slapstick. Given the lack of subtitles on the copy I watched, you might want to brush up your French first; the dialogue is fast and idiomatic. I missed a good deal of it.

A hightlight of the French comedy, only Bourvil or Fernandel were missing. I am not a great comedy lover but those French movies from the sixties and seventies were purely "gorgeous", especially with the likes of De Funès and Jean Gabin, who were outstanding. Everything is great, fun, never boring. This is a magical atmosphere, that only the new generations could be bored with. Once more, Jean Gabin gives a very peculiar performance, as he did with LA BARON DE L'ECLUSE, ARCHIMEDE LE CLOCHARD, LE JARDINIER D'ARGENTEUIL...So, if you are a Jean Gabin's fan, don't miss this one. And I don't even speak of Louis De Funès.

Le tatoué starts of with a lot of funny details and scenes but after about half an hour the pace drops. Lots of banter and outright crazy nonsense. Racist at times (it is hard to imagine this was considered bon ton in 1968), funny when De Funès is at his usual best. And the weird sensation at one moment when we clearly hear the soundtrack from the Pink Panther movies in the soundtrack. And the ending goes nowhere at all. It is difficult to imagine that 60s movie public was okay with this sort of plot less craziness that you expect 30 years earlier with Laurel and Hardy. A nice film for LdF fans, but when you are not: don't bother with it.