Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: Pierre Richard in a comedy by Claude Zidi.
After starting out with Maurice Bejart’s troupe, from which he drew a keen sense of choreographed gestures, it was at the cabaret that Pierre Richard created the character of the shy and distracted oddball that would characterize his entire career. .
In the cinema, it was not until 1970 and Le Distrait – which he wrote, performed and directed himself – that the actor was revealed to the general public. His blundering character met with immediate success, attracting more than a million cinema viewers.
Two years later, Le Grand Blond avec une Chausse Noire, directed by Yves Robert, definitively imposed its style on the public, who continued to flock to cinemas. The film attracts 3.5 million spectators.
From then on, other directors took an interest in Pierre Richard to build comedies around his name and his popular character. He was thus hired by the director Claude Zidi and the producer Christian Fechner to play in La Mustarde me monte au nez in 1974.
He embodies a handyman in a small town in the south; in turn, teacher at a boarding school, writer of speeches for his father in the midst of an election, as well as articles for a friend who criticizes shows.
When his students swap the contents of the folders to play a joke on him, Pierre finds himself in a host of comical and disconcerting situations.
To say the least burlesque, this scenario is only a pretext to leave the field free to the play of Pierre Richard, eternally elastic and lunar, in front of a sparkling Jane Birkin. Also note the tasty presence of Claude Piéplu as a slightly irritable conservative mayor. With 3.7 million admissions, the team found itself the following year on La course à l’échalote.
A few years later, in 1981, Pierre Richard reached consecration with La Chèvre by Francis Veber, which pitted him against Gérard Depardieu. With more than 7 million admissions, the film ranks first in the French box office, surpassing Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Professional.
Want another TV tip for tonight? We recommend one of the favorite films of AlloCiné viewers.
Mustard up my nose by Claude Zidi with Pierre Richard, Jane Birkin, Claude Piéplu…
Tonight on Arte at 8:55 p.m.