Delusions of Grandeur (1975)

You won't be disappointed!

Truly Dreadful Film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Maybe I'm stupid, but I had little to no idea what was going on during the first half of the movie. It sort of reminded me of the presumably spaghetti Western, My Name is Nobody. In that film I also kept telling myself, "Oh, this is where I'm supposed to laugh." There is nothing subtle or intellectual about this movie. It's just one slapstick gag after another. If I want that I'll watch The Three Stooges on TV. At least there, the context is clear, I guess this is what you get w 4-5 countries involved, each w its own tastes. Whenever anyone gets in trouble here he gets sent to the desert, apparently just a few minutes away, to be whipped into pushing a wheel that pulls water from the ground, for some guy on the other end to drink up. Ho, ho, is that funny or what? And the mistaken-identity bit. What originality! Like we've never seen that before. I didn't even begin to laugh through the whole thing. I kept thinking, there must be more. Then it ended. How a respectable actor like Yves Montand got involved in this silly, absurd slapstick is beyond me.

This movie happens during the XVII century in Spain. As I have never been much attracted by Spanish culture, I wasn't very motivated to see this movie.But as a big fan of Mr. De Funes, it's also hard to take it away. De Funes is simply the best comic actor and I don't know another one to be at the same level (Mr. Bean maybe?): he is talented in depicting little, miserly, hypocritical boss and we will never sufficiently underline his mastery in rhythm and music. He has thus a lot of class.Here, his partner is another french cinema "monster", Yves Montand. With his consciousness and political commitment, he is unfortunately too big to be a lackey but is imposing and brave as an aristocrat.So, we got here a strange mix, when the bad guy (De Funes) is cool while the good guy (Montand) is irritating! But, music mellows everything and here, Polnareff's love theme is a very touching one. With a lot of colors coming from live locations and wardrobe, the movie is enjoyable but not a recommendation for De Funes fans!

This movie is something my mother and her brothers have talked about since I can remember myself. It was showed on TV here in Iceland some 30 years ago and after few minutes when they realized how funny it was, they threw a videotape in to own it. Couple of years later the Adventures of Jacob the Rabbin was also showed and of course they made sure to own that one too. Since then they've been on the lookout for French comedies. I finally saw this movie 2 weeks ago.I don't speak French (besides "oui", "mademoiselle" and "monsieur") but just looking at Louis de Funès and Yves Montand talking and acting is hilarious! The plot is more than in many comedies today, it's timeless in a way, you only need to have eyes or ears to enjoy this film! The second time I saw this film I was laughing before the scenes had happened.Truly a masterpiece. I'm beginning to adore French movies, I think.

Yves Montand at his best, even for those, who deny intellectual appearances with him. De Funes tries to overtake him with his abilities, and the spectator is the winner. Unfortunately this movie had been squeezed in the mills of cold war time, but don't exaggerate. Turn your color-button up and enjoy.