There are going to be some spoilers, so readers beware...
Nicolas, who has done very well for himself in America, is about to marry the beautiful daughter of his friend and business partner. However, during the ceremony an unkind soul points out that Nicolas has a legitimate spouse, back home in his country of origin. When the dust has settled, Nicolas decides to travel back to France, in order to obtain an official divorce from his wife Charlotte. This is not going to be easy, since the French Revolution is still moving at a good clip, complete with battles, trials and bloodbaths. Meanwhile Charlotte has shacked up with a dashing marquis who wants to restore the monarchy...
This is one of the great French classics. There are many things to like about the movie : the funny, twisty story, the superb costumes and the rousing musical score with its many clever references to the historical era. The main attraction, however, is the Jobert - Belmondo combination, which in the early 1970's must have meant box office gold and which even nowadays provides the viewer with a great deal of fun. Jobert is in charge of charm, frivolity and small-boned fragility, while Belmondo, who is in great swashbuckling shape, takes care of the countless fistfights, stunts and escapes. Together they are pretty near irresistable.
Still, it needs to be said that this is not your run-of-the-mill comical adventure movie. To begin with, during the first half of the movie the Charlotte character is living together with a handsome and charismatic young aristocrat. The young man, who is gallant and dashing, has a beautiful young sister who is also gallant and dashing. After some adventures, brother and sister decide to ditch their respective lovers and admirers, since they are each other's great love. French aristocracy was indeed inbred, but this is taking things to a whole new level... Secondly, it was a very unusual idea to set such a light, sunny story in such a dark period of history. In the movie the juxtaposition pays off, mostly, but one cannot shake the idea that most real-life Frenchmen (of whatever origins or convictions) went through a living hell.
As a child I had a little playmate who had a French family name and who did, indeed, descend from a French ancestor. The said ancestor had fled all the way to Belgium, under a variety of aliases, after having been condemned to death during the French Revolution. His great crime was this : as an infant, he had been baptized something like "Aimé Dieudonné Leroy" (Well-beloved Given-by-God King). This was an inoffensive, traditional name, but some twenty years later it could qualify as treason against the State. This is not the stuff comedy is made of, this is the stuff nightmares are made of...
Nicolas, who has done very well for himself in America, is about to marry the beautiful daughter of his friend and business partner. However, during the ceremony an unkind soul points out that Nicolas has a legitimate spouse, back home in his country of origin. When the dust has settled, Nicolas decides to travel back to France, in order to obtain an official divorce from his wife Charlotte. This is not going to be easy, since the French Revolution is still moving at a good clip, complete with battles, trials and bloodbaths. Meanwhile Charlotte has shacked up with a dashing marquis who wants to restore the monarchy...
This is one of the great French classics. There are many things to like about the movie : the funny, twisty story, the superb costumes and the rousing musical score with its many clever references to the historical era. The main attraction, however, is the Jobert - Belmondo combination, which in the early 1970's must have meant box office gold and which even nowadays provides the viewer with a great deal of fun. Jobert is in charge of charm, frivolity and small-boned fragility, while Belmondo, who is in great swashbuckling shape, takes care of the countless fistfights, stunts and escapes. Together they are pretty near irresistable.
Still, it needs to be said that this is not your run-of-the-mill comical adventure movie. To begin with, during the first half of the movie the Charlotte character is living together with a handsome and charismatic young aristocrat. The young man, who is gallant and dashing, has a beautiful young sister who is also gallant and dashing. After some adventures, brother and sister decide to ditch their respective lovers and admirers, since they are each other's great love. French aristocracy was indeed inbred, but this is taking things to a whole new level... Secondly, it was a very unusual idea to set such a light, sunny story in such a dark period of history. In the movie the juxtaposition pays off, mostly, but one cannot shake the idea that most real-life Frenchmen (of whatever origins or convictions) went through a living hell.
As a child I had a little playmate who had a French family name and who did, indeed, descend from a French ancestor. The said ancestor had fled all the way to Belgium, under a variety of aliases, after having been condemned to death during the French Revolution. His great crime was this : as an infant, he had been baptized something like "Aimé Dieudonné Leroy" (Well-beloved Given-by-God King). This was an inoffensive, traditional name, but some twenty years later it could qualify as treason against the State. This is not the stuff comedy is made of, this is the stuff nightmares are made of...