Un idiot qui se croit Max Linder

Max did this gag movie with Bosetti and Nunguet, in which he plays Augustus, a typical character in one of their slapstick comedies, who realizes he looks like Max Linder and goes out to make trouble -- a typically pointless plot for their bone-breaking slapsticks which were in decline in the face of the relatively sophisticated works of Mack Sennett -- yes, Mack Sennett was sophisticated compared to the usual European slapstick, although not a patch on Linder's usual work.

Max plays it like one of their comics, big, stage-bound gestures and frequent gestures towards the audience.

As entertainment it's not much. Its prime purpose is its metafictional statement that it's all make-believe.

First of all, this film is part of the short lived "Gaétan"-, and not of the "Max"-series, yet it's, as the title indicates, all about the appearance, shape and silhouette of Max Linder. When the main character, just released from an insane asylum, decides to "become" Max Linder, he uses some promotional photographs to introduce himself to the production company and eventually to real life director Roméo Bosetti. Bizarrely, those pictures show neither Jules Vial, who plays the impostor in this film, nor Max Linder, but André Séchan, who, around the same time, aspires to become yet another Max "doppelganger" in the film 'Comment il manqua son marriage'. On top of that, in the final scene in the bureau of Bosetti, hangs a poster of the yet unreleased Max Linder film "Le Sosie"(/Max's double), in which Max plays a dual role, thus imitating himself. For me this is a fascinating, although probably not very realistic, glance behind the scenes of the film industry of 100 years ago.

When this story begins, a man has just been released from an insane asylum. Upon his release, Gustave (Jules Vial) immediately goes to the cinema and sees a Max Linder comedy....and after it is over, he decides to become Max! He buys clothes like Max, has business cards made up and soon he's dressing and acting like the famous French comedian. What's next? Watch the film.

Like so many Linder films I have seen, this one has a clever story idea though the film itself is far from hilarious...though considering you only see Linder performing on film as the fake Linder watches, it's a bit difficult to classify this as a Linder picture. Worth seeing if you love the man, but really not an especially memorable and surprisingly muted film.