Prolific French comic writer/director Veber, whose slim and nimble entertainments (
Les Fugitifs, Les Comperes, La Cage Aux Folles
) are often remade in Hollywood, gets the last word here.
He adapted his 1969 stage play
The
Contract
into a well-regarded comedy (called
L'Emmerdeur
or
The Troublemaker
) in 1973; a 1981 American version,
Buddy, Buddy,
starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau was the (reportedly disappointing) final film of the great Billy Wilder; now Veber claims it back, remaking it with the old title (in a more modern translation).
The original was the first outing for Francois Pignon, the name Veber has given to his main character in seven films now: hopelessly inept but pure of heart, he triumphs by good luck rather than good management over the cynical people around him.
In this case, Pignon (Timsit), a press photographer whose pretty wife Louise (Ledoyen) has just left him for the corrupt shrink Edgar Wolf (Elbe), checks into a Nice hotel with the sole object of taking his own life. But his room adjoins that of Ralf Milan (Berry), a hitman with a high-powered rifle who plans to plug a pesky witness (Aumont) as he enters the law courts below his window.
With the exception of a running gag in a prison van transporting the witness, the story is almost entirely a frantic two-room farce - it's easy to see how well it would have worked on stage. It's full of whip-smart dialogue and littered with pretty ironies: the killer trying to save the suicide only because the suicide is interfering with his killing plans is the best of many.
The distinctly Gallic humour may seem a little broad to English-speaking audiences - it's old-fashioned, really, like
Arsenic
and
Old Lace
, but that's meant as a compliment. And devotees of Veber will spot, in the final scene, the seed of the director's 2003 film
Ruby and Quentin.
Peter Calder
Cast
: Patrick Timsit, Virginie Ledoyen, Pascal Elbe, Richard Berry, Michel Aumont
Director
: Francis Veber
Running Time
: 86 mins
Rating
: M (contains violence and offensive language) in French with English subtitles
