Plus ça va, moins ça va (1977)
Directed by Michel Vianey

Film Review

Plus ça va, moins ça va is one of the more forgettable attempts at a French comedy policier in the 1970s, an incoherent mess of a film whose only redeeming feature is a catchy theme song by Mort Shuman (which is repeated ad nauseum).  In the most unsuccessful of their screen pairings, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean Carmet amble through the vacuous, directionless narrative as if they couldn't care less, which, given the quality of Vianey's direction and script, is quite understandable.  It is hard to account for the presence of such distinguished actors as Niels Arestrup and Louis Jourdan in this plodding insult to the intelligence, but it looks as if compromising photographs may have been involved.  In the 1970s, mainstream French cinema was awash with third rate comedies such as this but Plus ça va, moins ça va sets a new low, and if someone takes the trouble to compile a list of the one hundred most unfunny comedies ever made this will surely be on it.

Film Synopsis

In an affluent corner of the South of France, two police inspectors, Pignon and Melville, are investigating the mysterious killing of an attractive young woman.  Having interviewed various well-heeled home owners in the vicinity of the murder, the enterprising cops arrest the obvious culprit: an inconsequential black man.  When the latter escapes, Pignon and Melville are forced to continue their investigation and discover that the affair is far more complicated than they had imagined...