User reviews

If you like French cinematography, you will like this movie. I must respectfully disagree with the previous post, but I liked it. Although it has been a while since I saw this movie, I remember it as being light-hearted, witty and fun to watch.

Also, I seem to remember that the much of the plot takes place in Venice along the Grand Canal, not in Paris. The movie starts in Paris, ends in Venice. Perhaps the previous review was asleep?

Pierre Mondy is a retiring bank employee who is sent on a pleasure trip by his colleagues. On the train he "happens to" meet Clio Goldsmith. His character is a man who is craving adventure after decades of marriage and two kids. Although, having been married to Claudia Cardinale, one does wonder on what planet the scriptwriter was on...

The movie ends on a very high note. Claudia Cardinale travels to Venice and meets her husband and the flame is re-kindled.

While not a grand piece of cinema, it is fun and uplifting. Try it.

We first saw it on German TV. We laughed so hard that in the last 10 years we have seen it about 15 times. We are still looking for a copy to purchase.

The Bank employee (a family man) is going to retire early. One of his fellow workers has a sister who is a high priced "call-girl." The employees chip in an decide to give him "her" as a retirement gift without him knowing it. He thinks he is going on a little vacation by himself.

Now that the plot is set, and he just accidently gets in the same booth with the call girl (Clio Goldsmith) and the action starts with this unknowing poor soul.

There is serious comedy as only the French can produce. But they have added a little slapstick (which hurt the rating a little) and a lot of embarrassing situations which end up even more embarrassing. This gives an edge for more comedy and we loved every minute if it.

It is an adult movie with nudity done in good taste and even the women will enjoy watching this one with their husbands.

I disagree with the review that called this a lame sex farce...I first became aware of this movie while watching Siskel and Ebert who referred to it as one of their favorite foreign films of the year. I thought it was a light hearted, typical French Comedy. I think the reviewer fails to understand that the typical French Comedy is either based on mistaken identity, or a mistiming problem or a combination of both.

The French seem to have honed this genre to a fine art. Take for example the Dinner de Cons which does both, timing problems and mistaken identity. There are a few exceptions such as Ripoux, or My New Partner but this is pretty much what to expect from a French Comedy.

In the Gift, the first mistaken identity is the woman on the train. The hero who is retiring from the bank is given an expensive call girl for the weekend to accompany him on his last business trip to Venice...he does not know she is a professional and he believes she is attracted to him...thereafter there are series of timing errors and other mistaken identifications which leads to his wife coming to Venice, his son, his boss, etc. while he is hob knobing with shieks and tycoons...

No one is hurt, everyone comes out ahead and it is a fun movie...I saw in the recommendation of Siskel and Ebert and wasn't sorry.

We found the movie with the help of someone from the board and I ordered it from amazon.com. I now have it on VCD and it is also good in English. For some reason it didn't gain success. It should make a comeback on DVD. It probably would sell this time. It was available in a Z shop for those who are interested in VHS. It is a typical French Comedy in the way they present it with everything else thrown in to laughs frowns and etc. The actors are good and in France very well known. We will watch this movie probably once a year along with our top 100 videos that we see annually. Included is Overboard, Gigi, My Fair Lady, Gone with the wind, Multiplicity, and I personally have seen Back to the future over 40 times.

When I saw this film I'm pretty sure it was called "Le Cadeau" ("The Gift"), and IMDb listed it for many years as Le Cadeau. The "gift" was a surprise paid-for evening with an elite high-class call girl. It is given by his friends to a bank employee on his retirement. Clio Goldsmith plays the call girl, Joyane, who also uses the pseudonym Barbara.

Clio Goldsmith, a 25 year old German actress at the time this film was made, was one of the most stunningly beautiful women I'd ever seen. To my regret, she left the theater profession in 1985.

It's comedy of mistaken identities, but all I really remember is Clio Goldsmith. (I'm writing this more than 30 years after seeing the film!)