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Credits
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Summary
Léonard Monestier has made his fortune trading on the stock exchange, but his wife
Cynthia almost bankrupts him by selling some of his shares to buy an oil concession in
South America. Convinced that the concession is a fake, Monestier decides to sell
it on to Antoine Brévin, a naïve millionaire who wants to marry Monestier's
daughter, Patricia. However, Patricia has no intention of marrying Antoine,
and goes as far as hiring a car delivery man, Simon Guilbaud, to pretend to be her husband.
Unaware of this development, Monestier invites Antoine to his house to buy the oil concession.
To prove that the concession is genuine, Monestier hires Simon to pretend to be his son,
Paul, who is currently in South America. At this point, the real Paul turns up,
with a Latin beauty, Palma. Monestier has to resort to ever more desperate schemes
to get Antoine to sign his cheque...
Review
Having made over 100 film appearances in nearly twenty years, comic actor Louis de Funès
finally achieved top billing in Pouic-Pouic, the film that turned him into an overnight
comic sensation. Throughout the following two decades he would become the most popular
comedian in France, a charismatic cult figure whose popularity would endure long after
his death in 1983.
Pouic-Pouic is a typical burlesque comedy, (rather obviously) adapted from a stage play. De Funès plays an irascible bourgeois middle-aged man who is infinitely more interested in money and status than personal relationships – one of the characters he would perfect over the rest of his career in numerous films. Far from being a simple caricature, de Funès’ portrayal of such odious characters is intensely complex and well developed, showing the actor’s remarkable talent for observation and imitation, to say nothing of his obsessive perfectionism. Pouic-Pouic mark the first episode in a long and fruitful collaboration between de Funès and director Jean Girault. The two men would work together on a further 11 films, including the hugely popular Gendarme series. Working magnificently alongside de Funès in this film is the redoubtable Jacqueline Maillan, another highly regarded comic performer with a larger-than-life personality, playing the first (and arguably the best) of de Funès’ on-screen wives. The film also features the stunningly beautiful Mireille Darc in one of her first major film roles. Whilst the film suffers a little from some uninspired direction and a few predictable plot developments, the quality of the comic performances make it an entertaining piece of farce, in the best tradition of French burlesque comedy. The jokes – both visual and spoken – fall thick and fast and it is often a challenge to keep up with all of the film’s twists and turns. Whilst the plot is torturously complex, it is all good fun, and it is little wonder that the film proved to be a popular success on its release in 1963. © James Travers 2007 Write a review for this film... |
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