Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Bourvil, Louis de Funes, Claudio Brook, Andrea Parisy,
Collett Brossett, Mike Marshall | Written by Marcel Julian, Gerard Oury and Daniele Thompson
UK certification PG | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 119 minutes | Directed by Gerard Oury
Released in the UK as “Don't Look Now – We're Being Shot At”, La Grande Vadrouille is arguably France's most beloved comedy. Not so arguable, however, is the fact that the film is the third most successful at the French box office in cinema history, and was number one up until 1997 when James Cameron's Titanic stormed the world, and then the second most successful up until 2008, when it was overtaken by another French comedy, Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis.
La Grande Vadrouille is a slapstick cat and mouse caper set in Paris at the height of the Second World War. When a British bomberplane is shot down by German forces above the capitol city, the Brits have to team up with French sympathisers in order to make their escape back to Blighty. What follows is a truly hilarious adventure through the city and into rural France that includes some incredibly memorable and well-done comedy, and action, set pieces. The car chase and glider scenes are superb. The film is totally silly and for the most part good old clean fun, which makes for a thoroughly enjoyable two hours that pace along extremely well.
The interaction between the two male French sympathisers, a decorator (Bourvil) and a composer (de Funes) is nothing short of comedy gold. They have so much chemistry on-screen that it is a perfect match up for the two actors, especially when a character is so completely ridiculous as de Funes'; the stubbornest, most loudmouthed musician you could ever imagine, all packaged at about 5 feet tall with a mostly bald head.
Half of the time the comedy doesn't even make any logical sense, which just adds to the hilarity. See, for example, the composer's milk-white wig that acts as a voodoo doll rather randomly for about 20 seconds of screen time. There's no point to it except to be riotously funny, and there is no doubting that it very much is.
Those who handled the remastering of the film must be commended for this DVD release. The film was released in 1966, yet the picture is ever so vibrant, fresh and rich in colour, so it doesn't look its age. I doubt it could look much better with a high-definition transfer, it looks that beautiful. Also, don't let subtitles throw you off for this outrageously funny French film. A good portion of it is in English, and the subtitled text does nothing to affect the comedy. It is a must see; a real testament to French comedy.
EXTRAS ★ The trailer. Being as successful as this film is, one would assume that there would have been documentaries made, but this DVD is unfortunately bare bones.