Fais gaffe à la gaffe (1981)
Directed by Paul Boujenah

Film Review

André Franquin's popular comic strip creation Gaston Lagaffe struggles to make it to the big screen in this creaking comedy misfire, and, indeed, any resemblance between the accident-prone goon played by Roger Mirmont and Franquin's famous character would appear to be purely accidental.  Fais gaffe à la gaffe suffers somewhat from Franquin's antipathy towards it.  He allowed its authors to make use of the gags and situations in his comic books but, bizarrely, he would not allow the names of his characters to be used.

This explains why Mirmont plays someone enigmatically referred to as 'G', rather than Gaston.  However, this alone does not account for the film being a total write-off, a complete commercial and critical failure.  It manages to be a Grade A turkey without Franquin's help.  As has been demonstrated time and again, adapting a popular bande desinée for the cinema is a hopelessly fraught venture and rarely suceeds.  This is amply borne out by more recent film adaptations such as Boule et Bill (2013), L'Élève Ducobu (2011) and Le Petit Spirou (2017).  For every success there seem to be at least a score of outright failures.

First time director Paul Boujenah (the brother of the popular actor Michel Boujenah) appears completely out of his depth and looks as if he directed the entire film blindfolded, judging by how many gags misfire and how little coherence the film has.  Marie-Anne Chazel and Daniel Prévost are both immensely likeable and highly talented comic performers but there's hardly a scene where they do not look ridiculous beyond belief.  For his part, Mirmont just looks as if he is stoned or the victim of a total personality bypass.

It's hard to believe that the characters could have fewer dimensions than those that started out sketched on a piece of paper, but that's precisely what this film delivers.  Compared with Fais gaffe à la gaffe, Alain Chabat's adaptation of another popular André Franquin creation, Sur la piste du Marsupilami (2012), is a rollicking delight.  Paul Boujenah showed greater competence on his subsequent films - Le Faucon (1983) and Moitié-moitié (1989), but never managed to distinguish himself as a filmmaker.

Film Synopsis

G is tasked with maintaining the electrical systems in a department store.  When he unwittingly causes a series of disasters, he is dismissed and shortly afterwards has a car accident with Dumoulin, an important publisher.  To pay for the damage to his car, the later offers G a job...