Joyeuses Pâques

In 1984, the "Man" is looking at a world that is changing. The socialists are shaming you to be a capitalist while drinking champagne and eating caviar. The society is turning into a never ending pit of bad faith and selfishness. In the middle of it all comes this ridiculous caricature of a men from another time whom struggles to stay afloat. One lie to hide the previous one, presenting how ridiculous these "Don Juans" are in a world where women are simply stronger. This open the way to all the profound and sincere French humour in which the best thing to mocks is ourselves. To sum up, if you are French and think this is isn't funny, you should replace that head of yours, so stuck far up your bottom and try what is called "Autodérision". Qu'on me donne une mur..Que je me tape la tête dessus...Que je me suicide au mur !!!

The movie feels like a stage play at times. It is witty, funny and has great moments, (and a few disappointing scenes too). Overall great fun and a welcome break from Belmondo's "policier"/adventure comedies of the 70's and 80's. This movie can be watched over and over again. All the actors play well with slight overacting with results in the "stage play feeling" together with the relatively few different sets. The speed boat sequence in the opening of the film seems a bit weird and should be ignored. Anyway highly recommended comedy from French Grounds. Belmondo is and will always be a great actor.

A hilariously inveterate womanizer (Jean-Paul Belmondo) drops his wife (Marie Laforet)off at the airport so she can go away for Easter weekend. He immediately picks up a young woman (Sophie Marceau), who has just had a fight with her married boyfriend. He gets her back to his apartment and is preparing for a long weekend of hot stranger sex, but then his wife suddenly returns, and he has to make up a spur-of-the-moment story of the young girl being his long-lost daughter. The girl plays along, but this leads to a whole series of increasingly ridiculous lies and comical situations (such as when her real mother shows up). This is an old-fashioned European comedy that tends to differ from more modern Hollywood comedies in that the protagonist does not have to be sympathetic, but can be a philandering cad or hypocritical blow-hard. Belmondo though, a legend in French movies since his seminal appearance in Godard's "Breathless", does make his character quite charming, even though he's a chronically philandering cad who tells one bald-faced lie after another. Marie Laforet is also good as his wife, who keeps a good poker-face throughout, so you're never sure how much, if any, of his ridiculous stories she is actually buying, or whether she is just torturing him for her own amusement. Sophie Marceau shows off her spectacular, nubile breasts quite a bit (mostly just to tease her lecherous much older suitor), but she also easily goes toe-to-toe with Belmondo acting-wise (as she would the next year with Gerard Depardieu in "Police"), which is pretty impressive for an actress who (if IMDb dates can be believed) was only 17 or 18 at the time. Continental European movies at that time really specialized in wild car chase scenes that would make Hal Needham hang his head in shame, so there are a number of those kind of shoe-horned into the plot as well. Still, all the zany situations, bare breasts, and car chase footage serve to speed this comedy along, making it a pretty fun ride even it's pretty much as light as a soufflé and about as substantial. I actually kind of miss comedies like this, compared to the ones today where the main character always has to be likable (even when is he is played by Adam Sandler) and invariably falls in love and/or learns a moral lesson by the end. I suppose these old-fashioned European movies could be considered more "sexist" (as opposed to, say, "Just Go with It" and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"), but I don't personally buy that as even the young girl here is far more clever than the buffoonish male. This movie is mostly just a lot of harmless fun.

The film doesn't have a great script. All rely on the personal charm of Jean-Paul Belmondo, great and funny, as usual. A very young Sophie Marceau is also very charming and efficient. A not so young Marie Laforêt does what she can. Rosy Varte the same, even better, in a smaller role than Laforêt. Gérard Hernandez, small role too, the waiter from the Indian restaurant, is funny too. The music by Philippe Sarde is not great. Without Belmondo, with any other actor as the character Stephane Margelle, the film will be boring without shudder, without a charm. Jean-Paul fills the screen, he is the salt and the pepper.

Bad campy French comedy, with lots of unfanny slapstick, a lot of silliness and very few nice gags. Sophie Marceau is cute and charming in her youth, Marie Laforêt does a competent job and has a strong presence, but Jean-Paulo Belmondo is very unconvincing in the leading role, partially due his unskilled overacting and because he does not fit in that character which is a mix of Don Juan de Marco and James Bond. As a matter of fact, the whole concept of the story is not good at all.

I found it very interesting that almost only Hungarian people wrote reviews on this film. About the film: IMO this is a typical French comedy, with lots of embarrassing and silly but funny situations and decent acting. Belmondo is in top form, the ladies are OK. If you like French comedies this is right up your street. What makes this movie unforgettable for many of my fellow citizens is the extremely high quality of the Hungarian dubbing. I mean, I watched this film with the original sound and i have to tell you I didn't get half of the pleasure than watching it with the Hungarian voices.( In Hungary films on TV are usually dubbed and the standard of voice acting in the country was top notch for years. It's slowly declining nowadays, though, I'm afraid.)Many Hungarians know the entire script by heart and it's always a good party thing if you quote a line from this film. To us it's just fun. Like I said earlier this might not be your cup of tea. However, just for the laughs you can watch it on a day when there's not much to do(I wish I had more of them). It's impossible not to -at least- smiley on the lovely character played by Belmondo.

This movie is a comedy classic, which I've loved since I was kid. I remember going to the cinema and then waiting every year to watch this on television (before VHS/DVD was available). The plot is perfect, the dialogs are sharp and brilliant, and the movie is funny right from the beginning to the end. No matter there are shots plainly to show Bebel's commitment for doing stunts on his own, which are not related directly to the movie. Bebel is at his best shape (gestures, overacting in specific moments), Sophie in her teenage is both talented and bloody gorgeous and the overall result is mood improvement by 100 % every time I watch it. I do of course understand not everyone must necessarily like this movie (German audience perhaps :), but I totally share the enthusiasm of Hungarian colleagues. This movie belongs to my top 3 Bebel's movies together with L'animal and Le magnifique.

In the 80's, Jean-Paul Belmondo was the main French action hero. Most of his films were big-budget adventures, with him fighting everyone, from the Germans in "L'as des as" (1982), to mafia criminals in "Le marginal" (1983). While these films have their charm (especially "L'as des as" is both hilarious and sweet), it is in comedy that he really shone. In 1984, wanting a change from his frequent action films, he collaborated with director Georges Lautner in "Joyeuses Pâques", an amazing comedy of manners. Belmondo plays Stéphane Margelle, a wealthy industrialist who lives the perfect life; he has a loving wife, Sophie (Marie Laforêt) and a well-paid job. He has only one flaw; he is a womaniser. Every time he leaves for a business trip, he seduces a charming woman. And so, when his wife leaves for vacation without him, he seizes the opportunity to invite a young woman named Julie, (Sophie Marceau) who has been dumped from her boyfriend on Easter day, in his house. Of course, luck is not on his side, and Sophie comes back uninvited. Now, Stéphane has to find an excuse to justify Julie's presence. So, he says that she is his dear daughter, who, by the way, is pregnant. So starts Stéphane's web of lies, that grows even bigger, until a surprise visitor in a party turns everything upside down. While the premise is already promising, the performances are the ones that differentiate the film from all other such comedies. Belmondo interprets Margelle with such intensity and theatricality that he becomes a pleasure to watch, only for his exaggerated reactions to everything his wife says. Laforêt, on the other hand, is pretty relatable in her way of trying to keep some logic in this mad situation, and her interactions with both her husband and her alleged step-daughter have a delightful mixture of sweetness and irony. As for Sophie Marceau, she serves as an excellent combination of the two others' characters, being both relatively reserved - or rather embarrassed with the situation she has been trapped in - and sentimental, especially in her confrontations with her "father". This was one of the films she made after being released from her contract with Gaumont, willing to cement her image as a serious actress. While she never really succeeded in that extent, her performance here was charming and showed a different aspect of her acting abilities, a far cry from the innocent teenager she had played just two years before. The supporting cast is also excellent. Long-time Belmondo collaborator Michel Beaune is an oxymoron by himself as the communist businessman, who hates Margelle for his capitalistic nature but is the head of the company in which the latter works, and Rosy Varte as the surprise visitor provides possibly the most laughs in the film with her almost preposterous behaviour. Lautner, who had previously collaborated with Belmondo in "Le professionnel" (1981) directed "Joyeuses Pâques" at just the right pace for it to be watchable without becoming tedious. For all the verbal comedy, a car chase at the end of the film shows that both for Lautner and Belmondo, some action, even light-hearted, was inescapable. For many viewers, it was this movie that was inescapable. Millions flocked to see it when it came out, showing that a collaboration of the old and the new generation of French actors was not only desirable, but also successful when taking place. So, shy not sit and enjoy "Joyeuses Pâques", or better, watch it with a friend? It is surely a great way to wish "Happy Easter".

What a great performance! I wonder why some people don't like this movie. OK, it's rather silly and unreal(?), but there are several silly movies all around the world especially in the USA. This was made in Europe. It's not an awful German film that was made for awful German teens...It's a French COMEDY(!!!!!) was made for healthy European human beings! (My grandparents were Germans, and I'm Hungarian, so I have opinion about French:-))), so this is NOT a political sentence!) So, don't miss this movie if you'd like to see a really enjoyable comedy. I think, the European style in comedy with Belmondo's acting never dies! It's entertaining and unforgettable. For everybody. Only a few actors can play this role so perfectly like Belmondo does. Don't miss it!

Ah yes, the famous French sense of humour. It's starts with a speed boat going through a shed for no apparent reason at all and then double takes of that. Bebel acts like he is stepping in for the late Louis de Funes- hyperactive, nervous, over the top. The plot reads quite amusing- it's not. Again the whole film degenerates into a farce that has no plot whatsoever and whenever Lautner, normally a competent director, loses the plot completely he adds a car chase which does not make any sense whatsoever. A couple of jibes at Mitterand's government then even try to turn this turkey into a political satire. How funny- the socialist wears a red tie and talks like Lenin on acid. The only good thing about this film is the nubile Sophie Marceau who is frequently fairly naked.