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Du rire aux larmes

Original title: Only When I Laugh
  • 1981
  • R
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Kristy McNichol and Marsha Mason in Du rire aux larmes (1981)
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:53
2 Videos
11 Photos
ComedyDrama

A Broadway actress fresh out of rehab navigates sobriety, her career, demanding daughter, and supporting her troubled friends' personal crises.A Broadway actress fresh out of rehab navigates sobriety, her career, demanding daughter, and supporting her troubled friends' personal crises.A Broadway actress fresh out of rehab navigates sobriety, her career, demanding daughter, and supporting her troubled friends' personal crises.

  • Director
    • Glenn Jordan
  • Writer
    • Neil Simon
  • Stars
    • Marsha Mason
    • Kristy McNichol
    • Ed Moore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.4/10
    1.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Glenn Jordan
    • Writer
      • Neil Simon
    • Stars
      • Marsha Mason
      • Kristy McNichol
      • Ed Moore
    • 19User reviews
    • 10Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 3 Oscars
      • 2 wins & 8 nominations total

    Videos2

    Only When I Laugh
    Trailer 2:53
    Only When I Laugh
    Only When I Laugh: Leaving The Hospital
    Clip 1:28
    Only When I Laugh: Leaving The Hospital
    Only When I Laugh: Leaving The Hospital
    Clip 1:28
    Only When I Laugh: Leaving The Hospital

    Photos10

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    Top cast33

    Edit
    Marsha Mason
    Marsha Mason
    • Georgia
    Kristy McNichol
    Kristy McNichol
    • Polly
    Ed Moore
    • Dr. Komack
    Joan Hackett
    Joan Hackett
    • Toby
    James Coco
    James Coco
    • Jimmy
    Nancy Nagler
    • Heidi
    Dan Monahan
    Dan Monahan
    • Jason
    David Dukes
    David Dukes
    • David
    Ellen La Gamba
    • Receptionist
    Michael A. Ross
    • Paul
    • (as Michael Ross)
    Venida Evans
    Venida Evans
    • Nurse Garcia
    Tom Ormeny
    Tom Ormeny
    • Kyle
    Peter Coffield
    Peter Coffield
    • Mr. Tarloff
    John Bennett Perry
    John Bennett Perry
    • Actor (Lou)
    Byron Webster
    Byron Webster
    • Tom
    Ken Weisbrath
    • Waiter
    Jane Atkins
    • Doreen
    Henry Olek
    Henry Olek
    • George De Vane
    • Director
      • Glenn Jordan
    • Writer
      • Neil Simon
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews19

    6.41.7K
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    Featured reviews

    7Isaac5855

    Mason's Finest Hour

    Much has been written over the years regarding the 'one-note" performances of Marsha Mason. Four of these "one-note" performances earned Mason Oscar nominations and IMO this is the best of those four. ONLY WHEN I LAUGH is Neil Simon's big screen re-working of his own play THE GINGERBREAD LADY. Marsha Mason plays Georgia Hines, an actress recently released from rehab, trying to get her career going again, trying to re-establish a relationship with her daughter (Kristy McNichol) and trying to stay sober and not really doing a great job with any of them. Mason hits all the right notes here and makes Georgia a flawed and realistic human being. Some of Mason's best moments involve no dialogue at all...there is a wonderful scene about 2/3 of the way through the film where an on-the-edge Georgia is walking the streets of Manhattan around dusk and it seem like every other storefront she passes is a bar. She then stops at an interior pay phone to call her doctor from rehab; however, he is not present and Georgia doesn't want to talk to the doctor who does answer the phone. This scene is extremely well-played by Mason and I think it's the scene that probably nailed the Oscar nomination for her. Kristy McNichol charms, as always, as Polly, Georgia's self-sufficient daughter who still yearns to be Mommie's little girl sometimes. James Coco and Joan Hackett also deliver Oscar nominated performances as Georgia's best friends, Jimmy, an unemployed actor and Toby, a vain, society beauty trying to cope with the fact that her best years have passed her by. Hackett is particularly impressive as the fading beauty whose fragile ego doesn't keep her from kicking Georgia in the ass when she needs it. Though Simon definitely has stronger screenplays under his belt, ONLY WHEN I LAUGH is worth seeing if for no other reason, the strong performances by the four leads, three of which earned Oscar nominations.
    7jjnxn-1

    Good Marsha, Middling Simon

    Lesser Neil Simon dramedy with a fine performance from Marsha Mason. The problem is that her character is so selfish it's difficult to sympathize with her and since she's the focus of the piece that's vital. The result is that you feel detached from the proceedings. Purportedly Marsha's character Georgia was based on Judy Garland but as written she has none of Judy's enchantress qualities that made her often maddening behavior tolerable to her intimates for so many years. Georgia is thorny without the magnetism or charm that would compensate for her petty, difficult and sometimes cruel behavior.

    Joan Hackett gives her customarily excellent performance for which she was Oscar nominated but the part isn't award worthy. Still since this was her final feature film role before her death it nice that she was so honored for her many years of quality work. James Coco was similarly acknowledged and his part is more fleshed out but he has likewise had better roles. Kristy McNichol, at the height of her fame when this was made, surely took the project on feeling it would be a good showcase for her but except for one confrontation scene her character doesn't make much impact and it seems the script doesn't know what it wants her to be.

    Not a bad film but for being a Neil Simon project the script is missing an incisiveness that is the hallmark of his better work.
    6moonspinner55

    Cheap shots

    Comedy-drama from writer Neil Simon, an expansion of his unsuccessful play "The Gingerbread Lady", has Marsha Mason playing an alcoholic Broadway star just checking out of rehab and back into reality when her estranged teenage daughter tells her she wants the two to be roommates. Fairly lively, bitchy film full of wisecracks and tears becomes flabby in the second and third acts, mostly due to poor editing which might have eliminated the dross (and a few side-plots that lead nowhere). Mason performs one too many dramatic monologues on the telephone, and there's six minutes of wasted film involving two college guys trying to pick up Mason and daughter Kristy McNichol at a health food restaurant. The movie has been designed to show off Mason's range (her vulnerability, her wiseass humor, her pathos, etc.). She's striking walking around New York City in her cape, less so when she's sniffling or giving an actors' seminar on the phone. Mason matches up perfectly with McNichol, but 17-year-old Kristy is shunted off to the side (and I disliked the padded sequence where she gets drunk like mamma). There are some fine moments here, but the picture gets off to a really bad start with an excruciating scene between James Coco and a Hispanic delivery boy. Simon takes one cheap shot after another, and yet the film isn't really about alcoholism at all, it's about masochistic behavior. **1/2 from ****
    9edwagreen

    Only When I Laugh-It Hurts So Much to Be So Good ***1/2

    Another marvelous Marsha Mason performance as a recently returning actress from rehabilitation.

    Neil Simon's script is as crisp and vivid as ever. Too bad that both Miss Mason and Diane Keaton's performance in "Reds" were overlooked by the Academy when the Oscar went to the sentimental Katharine Hepburn for "On Golden Pond." Academy members were apparently voting for Henry Fonda for best actor in record numbers and just went down the line for Hepburn as well. What a shame.

    The film deals with the frustrations and hopes of 3 people and that doesn't even include a worthy performance by Kristy McNichol as the daughter.

    As the gay actor, desperately trying to succeed, the late James Coco was excellent. In the supporting category, he is well matched by the late Joan Hackett, tremendous as Mason's best friend, whose marriage is apparently falling apart.Those glittering grayish clothes that she wore expressed her emotions so well. No one could also wear those poncho outfits that Mason wore. They depicted a troubled, but independent lady.

    This is an excellent case study of 3 friends in turmoil and how they try to cope while supporting each other emotionally. Trouble is that Georgia (Marsha Mason) allows herself to fall back and drink again. She says that as a youngster she wanted to be another Susan Hayward. She sure is crying tomorrow and smashing up her life.
    8rachelrachel-33431

    One of the Better Simon Adaptations

    For a playwright as well-regarded and prolific as Neil Simon, a lot of his film adaptations have left a lot to be desired. Thankfully, Only When I Laugh (a variation on his lesser known play, The Gingerbread Lady) breaks this losing streak and manages to give us an incredibly funny, but deeply moving story about an alcoholic actress who brings destruction everywhere she goes, but who is too well loved by her friends and family to desert her completely.

    Marsha Mason delivers one of her finest performances as Georgia and is well matched by Kristy McNichol as her young daughter. Supporting performances from James Coco and Joan Hackett are fantastic as well and add most of the humor to the film.

    There are a few minor pacing lags throughout, but that's the biggest issue I can think of. Only When I Laugh is more than worth a watch.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      James Coco became the first actor to be nominated for both an Academy Award and a Razzie for the same performance. Coco won neither award. The only people to repeat this have been Amy Irving for Yentl (1983) and Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy (2020).
    • Goofs
      In one of the opening scenes when Marsha Mason's character is leaving the "Betty Ford Clinic" of the time, there is an employee, Sandy, who passes her by the stairs says good-bye but addresses her as Mrs. Simon instead Mrs. Hines the character's real name.
    • Quotes

      Jimmy: You're a lousy liar!

      Jimmy: I am a wonderful liar! I'm only lousy when I lie to you!

    • Alternate versions
      NBC edited 24 minutes from this film for its 1984 network television premiere.
    • Connections
      Featured in Sneak Previews: Continental Divide, Mommie Dearest, Only When I Laugh, Body Heat, First Monday in October (1981)
    • Soundtracks
      Heart
      from Damn Yankees (1958)

      Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross

      Performed by Kristy McNichol (uncredited) and Nancy Nagler (uncredited)

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 25, 1981 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh
    • Filming locations
      • New York City, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Rastar Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $25,524,778
    • Gross worldwide
      • $25,524,778
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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    Kristy McNichol and Marsha Mason in Du rire aux larmes (1981)
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